Walking with a Ghost
by latitat
Summary: Naruto is born a girl, and things change—or not—for everyone. A fem!Naruto story. Eventual Sasuke/Naruto.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

Disclaimer: _Naruto_ belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, Studio Pierrot, etc. Not me.

This is a story I've been working on for a while. It is going to be _long_ , and to focus on _all_ the members of team 7 (Sai and Yamato included) and how they could have changed had things been a little different. Please reserve your judgement of my way of portraying these characters until I've had time to flesh them out more. There is going to be Sasuke/Naruto, but _very_ eventually—romance won't be the focus of things for a long while, and other ships will feature that I won't give away yet. **Trigger warnings for individual chapters will be posted as the** **end note of each chapter** , as some of them will contain spoilers. **Please consult them if you think you might be uncomfortable with anything**. My take on the ninja world is a bit morerealistic than in the manga. Violence will be graphic in some cases, although I try to keep it light.

Thank you for reading.

Title is taken from the song by Kadebostany.

 **Walking With a Ghost**

Chapter 1.

Sarutobi Hiruzen was an expert at treading carefully. One didn't stay Hokage for as long as he had without making compromises—or lightly manipulating people into adhering to his point of view. Right now, the situation he found himself in was a complicated one. He had taken out his pipe, smoking slowly, discreetly burning the remnants of smoke with his chakra before they could damage his lungs. At this point, he didn't even enjoy the tobacco anymore, it was all for show.

"It seems to me that young Naruto just saved your life, Iruka-kun," he said, smiling at the battered chuunin standing before him.

The man answered his smile with a wince, a hand coming to prod at his split lip. It was strange to see him like this, bloody and tired, devoid of his forehead protector. Iruka might not have been one of the strongest shinobi of the Leaf, but he was one of its most loyal. That he should have given his protector away, and to Naruto of all people… He truly was a wonderful boy.

"She did, sir," Iruka finally replied. "Which is why i do not feel mistaken in my decision to accept her as a genin. She showed that she has the ability to deal with real-life situations and she managed to compartmentalize her emotions enough not to let Mizuki's revelations disturb her judgment. And, God knows how, she learned a jounin-level technique in one evening."

Hiruzen nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, she has the skills, and she showed promise. It is, however, the policy of this village to judge shinobi candidates in an academic setting, during the exams they have had time to prepare for. An exam Naruto has failed three times already."

"This policy is a new one and you know it," Iruka protested. "Sir," he added after a second,

blushing at his outburst. "Many of our most excellent shinobi have graduated under special circumstances, or been promoted outside of the chuunin and jounin exams. Naruto is obviously uncomfortable at the Academy, and honestly, I don't blame her. Would you really let her rot there for another six months? Most of the teachers hate her and make no secret of it. Some of them have been failing her on purpose for years. You know that's why she doesn't study anymore."

It was a problem Hiruzen was unfortunately very aware of. When Uzumaki Naruto had started attending the Academy—after weeks of virulent debate in the village council and until Uchiha Fugaku had simply stated that if their junchuuriki didn't learn chakra control, they shouldn't come crying when the Kyuubi broke free and no Yondaime was there to save them—the teaching staff of Konohagakure had made its opinion on the topic very clear. The enthusiastic seven-year-old Naruto had soon stopped making efforts in her studies when she realized that her grades were slipping no matter what. Instead, she had made herself visible through other means, making an annoyance of herself and forcing the villagers to acknowledge her presence through mostly harmless pranks and the gritting shriek of her voice.

It hadn't softened people's opinion, Hiruzen reflected sadly, but it _had_ made their hatred more visible, more justified in their warped minds. Fewer and fewer of his shinobi intervened when Naruto got herself into trouble. The little girl, now twelve years of age, had already almost been killed twice, not counting Mizuki's attempt a few hours before.

The Hokage sighed and leaned back in his chair. The open window next to his desk let in the chilly night air, alleviating the heaviness he always started feeling after long days spent inside. His nape started aching, but he refused to let it show.

"I will let Naruto graduate, as you wish," he said finally. Seeing Iruka's face light up at the announcement, he lifted his hand, stopping the man's thanks before they could leave his mouth. "However, that doesn't mean she will be leaving the Academy. She has to gain the approval of whichever jounin will be assigned to her before her career as a kunoichi of Konoha can truly begin. This will prove most difficult. I cannot guarantee that her evaluation will be free of prejudice."

"Aren't the jounin above all this pettiness?" Iruka asked, a note of helplessness in his voice. Another time, Hiruzen would have smiled, glad to see that Naruto had managed to bond to this extent with her teacher. God knew the girl was in need of a good parental figure.

"I cannot say this for sure. Many of them have lost comrades and family when the Kyuubi attacked. And although they are aware of the Yondaime's wish to see the girl brought up as a hero, and they are better at hiding their personal resentment, none of them have ever made a move to seek her out as a student. I will have to make room in a team for her, and whoever ends up being her teacher is hardly going to be happy about it, if only because of the bad reputation having a jinchuuriki as a student will give them."

They stayed silent for a moment, each of them deep in thought. _A difficult situation indeed_ , Hiruzen wondered, sucking grey smoke into his body, longing to let it have its relaxing effect. _I_ _do wish the clans at least had learned to accept the girl. If the Uchiha managed to treat her as they would any other citizen of this village, surely the Hyuuga at least could make an effort. I_

 _thought Hiashi was smarter than this_. His heart gave a loud familiar thump at the memory ofFugaku and Mikoto, their would-be treason, and the measures that had to be taken to avoid it.

"Uchiha Sasuke is rookie of the year, I believe," he said, chasing away the old pain in his chest. What was done was done.

"Yes," Iruka replied, confused.

"It is traditional that the best and worst of each class be on the same team, to even things out. I had planned to give Sasuke to Kakashi, to help him master the Sharingan, should he develop it." _Which I don't doubt_ , he didn't say. "The original idea was to have him train Sasuke, Nara Shikamaru and Yamanaka Ino… If I make a team with Sasuke and Naruto, I can have Shikamaru and Ino team with Akimichi Chouji and give them to Asuma. He hadn't planned on taking a team, but the work will do him good. My son is getting quite lazy." _And Inoichi, Shikaku_ _and Chouza will finally leave me in peace about the genin placements_.

Hiruzen took a minute to organize his thoughts. Knowing all the promising students of the Academy was a part of his job he was very invested in. The younger generations of shinobi were the most important. They were the ones who would carry the will of fire, and watching all of them burn brightly among the battle-weary shinobi that made up most of Konoha's elite was one of his greatest sources of joy, second only to spending time with Konohamaru.

"Haruno Sakura could replace Ino," Iruka said. "What she lacks in stamina and physical strength, she makes up for in hard work. Her chakra control is the best out of all the graduates and her grades are excellent. She's a little air-headed, and being in a team with Sasuke-kun will probably make her a bit of a liability at first, but she should snap out of it soon enough. She's a good girl."

This was an interesting idea. Haruno Sakura didn't come from a family of shinobi. Her parents were civilian merchants who had loudly disapproved of her getting enrolled at the Academy. The girl had probably only done it to spite them in the first place, Hiruzen now realized, but she had become a promising student. She wasn't quite at the level required in brute strength, but she could train and get better. And her intellectual knowledge would be a good addition to a team with Naruto and Sasuke in it. Naruto wasn't good at anything that wasn't physical training, and Sasuke tended to rely too much on his clan techniques and natural talent. Sakura's presence would do them good.

"I agree," he nodded, and Iruka smiled. "I will give Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke to Kakashi. I do not know if he will pass them, seeing as he has never taken a genin team before, and only made himself available because of Sasuke. But I know how Kakashi likes his teams, and I have faith that in that respect, they will surprise him."

"Well," the chuunin chuckled, earning himself a raised eyebrow. "At least having Sasuke-kun and Naruto together should be interesting. They can't stand each other _at all_."

A short laugh escaped Hiruzen. It would be worth it, if only for Kakashi's reaction to those news. The teams were to be announced the next Monday, to leave the newly graduated students time to recover from the exams—and, although this wasn't public knowledge, time to

enjoy being shinobi before sixty percent of them were sent back to the Academy benches.

With surprise, he realized that he didn't doubt for one second that Naruto wouldn't be one of them.

x

Naruto woke up on Monday morning feeling like she could conquer the world. This wasn't a new occurrence in and of itself, as she often let her thoughts linger on how incredible she would feel once she became Hokage—the first _female_ Hokage, at that, which was even more awesome— but it was the first time she felt her dream was truly backed by something.

Smiling broadly, she grabbed the forehead protector sitting on her nightstand. She hadn't had it for more than a few days, but it had already become her most prized possession. The metal was covered in tiny scrapes, the cloth well-worn and soft in her hands. Biting her lips to prevent herself from screaming in joy (it was early and her neighbors disliked her a lot as it was), she jumped out of bed and discarded her pajamas.

In the shower, she did a quick job of washing herself. She was running low on shampoo, but even the prospect of having to take care of the groceries soon couldn't dampen her good mood.

She had graduated!

Finally, after three failed attempts, she had managed to impress one of her teachers. And Iruka-sensei had even given her his own forehead protector. It probably didn't mean much to him, as he must have spare ones ready just in case, but to her it was the greatest gift she had ever received, and she would wear it proudly.

Today was the day she would meet her team. She would lie if she said she wasn't anxious; there were a lot of people in her class that she frankly disliked, and even more who outright hated her. The fact that she now knew _why_ they did didn't make it any less true. She would also have to deal with her instructor and whatever prejudice he might hold against her. She frowned, remembering Mizuki's hateful words and his grey eyes gleaming with malice.

Whatever, she decided. What would happen would happen, and she would deal with it then. Worrying about it beforehand wouldn't do her any good. Besides, maybe she would be on a team with Sakura-chan! She blushed slightly at that thought. Oh, if only she could be on a team with her. It was unlikely, since every team was supposed to have one girl in it, and the number of kunoichi candidates, while on the rise, was still barely sufficient. But she could hope.

Naruto stepped out of the shower stall and put on her orange jumpsuit, sandals and beloved forehead protector. When she came home tonight, she would be a true Konoha genin. She would have two teammates and a jounin instructor, and together they would become famous and be the best in the village. Of that, she was sure.

It was still early when she got out of her apartment. Fall was coming, and the trees surrounding the village were already turning a brownish red. Goosebumps crawled on the skin of her bare

forearms—the wind was still cold and damp from the previous night's rain.

She was almost at the Academy gates ( _The last time I walk through these stupid gates_ , she thought with satisfaction) when she stopped dead in her tracks.

"Konohamaru!" she yelled, pointing at the side of the road. "I know you're here! Why the hell are you following me?"

She heard a yelp, and soon enough a little boy covered in green paint started out of the bushes and tried to run away. Naruto quickly did the seal for her Shadow Clone technique and waited for another version of herself to catch him. Barely a minute later, Konohamaru was dragged before her, and she dismissed her double.

"What was that technique?" the boy asked immediately, looking with wide eyes at the place her clone had stood a second ago.

"Never mind that! Why are you following me?" she answered, crossing her arms in front of her.

He blushed and refused to say a thing, instead kicking a rock away and into a nearby wall. When he thought her irritation might have receded, he risked looking up, only to catch her cold glare, and she saw him restrain a shriek. She chuckled internally. It was good to know that her imitation of Ayame-san's best glare #2 at least worked on someone.

"I-I-I just wanted to wish you luck with your new team," he grumbled, cheeks reddening.

Her expression softened. "Alright," she sighed. "But next time try a better disguise. That shade of green isn't even remotely similar to those bushes. Are you colorblind? Also, there's no need to sneak up on me like that. You can just come talk to me."

Konohamaru jumped to his feet, fist raised, ignoring her question. "I can see that you're still stronger than me, Naruto! But it won't last! I'm going to become Hokage, and I won't let myself be beaten by a girl! Even if I still can't believe you're a girl," he added, frowning at her.

Laughing, she shooed him away. Talking with Konomaharu like this was rapidly becoming something of a habit, despite the fact that they had met only a few days ago. The Hokage's grandson had developed a bit of a hero-worship attitude towards her after she'd pushed his stuck-up teacher into the river. He had taken to wearing the pair of goggles she had given him after that awful night like it was some kind of a medal. She was flattered, and a little uncomfortable, and mostly she was growing very fond of this little boy who called himself her rival.

 _Too bad I already have a rival picked_ , she thought cheerfully as she walked into the Academybuilding. _God, I hope I'm not in Sasuke's team._

She was still early. The only other person in her classroom was Shikamaru, and he was sleeping as usual. Sometimes she wondered if the only reason he got out of bed in the morning was so he could go right back to sleep at school. His grades were about as bad as hers, and he was twice as lazy. Which, come to think of it, was supremely annoying.

Naruto sat down in the back and waited for the others to arrive. Little by little, her classmates trickled by and took their places. Some of them shot her surprised looks, but thankfully they seemed too excited too bother her. She grunted when she saw Sasuke sit down in front of her. He didn't notice her presence, probably too busy being a jerk even in thought.

Annoyed, she realized he was so tall that she couldn't see above his head, even when he slouched in his chair.

A low murmur was growing in the room as friends greeted each other. Some seemed anxious, worried about being placed in a bad team. Even Shikamaru had opened his eyes when Chouji had joined him, and was listening to the other's incessant babble. Naruto felt sadness spread through her chest briefly; she liked them, and Kiba as well, and would have loved to spend more time with them. They had never gotten close enough to be friends, exactly, but she used to hang out with them from time to time. Until the boys' mothers had taken notice, and told their sons to stop talking to her. They hadn't understood—she hadn't, either, even if now she _did_ , and it did nothing to ease the pain—but they had obeyed. Slowly, their relationship had strained, until it disappeared. They had never been mean to her; they just hadn't cared enough to be kind.

Naruto scowled, face hidden in her arms. She wasn't supposed to be so maudlin on the day she started her career as a kunoichi of the Leaf! So what if Kiba, Shikamaru and Chouji had stopped caring about her? So had tons of other people. She was stronger than that. If _Sasuke_ could ignore everyone around him and still look cool doing it, so could she.

High-pitched yelling announced the arrival of Ino and Sakura-chan. Naruto raised her head, a grin spreading on her face, and felt her mood brighten considerably as she saw her pink-haired classmate barge into the room, followed by a very angry-looking Ino. Sakura-chan had graduated too! Of course, that wasn't surprising. She was smart, and beautiful, and had better grades than everyone else. She was always going to graduate on her first try.

"Hello, Sakura-chan!" Naruto called happily. The other girl ignored her, passing her by on her way to Sasuke's side. Ino glanced at her, surprised, but made no comment.

The two of them started talking to Sasuke, their voices growing louder and louder, while the jerk only grunted and sighed. It was unfair, Naruto decided, that such a genius had to be such an asshole. He wasn't even remotely worthy of Sakura-chan's affection.

She was about to leap onto the jerk's desk and shake him by the shoulders when Iruka-sensei entered the classroom.

"Alright, folks!" he said brightly, and Naruto reluctantly sat down. Their teacher took attendance —for the last time, which made her feel very strange—before putting down his clipboard and looking all of them in the eye, smiling proudly.

"First of all, congratulation to all of you for passing the exams," he continued once everyone was silent again. "I'm very proud to have been your teacher, and I have no doubt that you will all make excellent shinobi. The village is lucky to have you."

His now-former students chuckled, and elbowed each other, and Naruto could feel herself growing taller when Iruka-sensei's gaze fell on her for a second, warm and friendly.

"Now, as you know, you will be placed in teams of three and put under the instruction of an experienced jounin. You will start taking missions and doing your share of protection for all the citizens of Fire and whoever else might request your help. This is the official beginning of your career, so good luck to you all. Respect your teachers, obey your orders, and do your best to uphold the will and reputation of this great village!"

His words were met with an enthusiastic clamor, and Iruka-sensei let it wash over the assembly before taking up his notes again.

"Your teachers will meet you this afternoon, but I will announce the teams now. This will be my last advice to you: take your free time today to get to know your teammates. Get to know them, their ambitions, their lives. Team work is important, and knowing who you are fighting with could save your life one day."

He then started listing the names and team numbers of the thirty or so graduates. Tense and excited at the same time, Naruto waited for her turn, wishing for the hundredth time that day not to fall into a team made of people who hated her. As the few people she occasionally talked to were sorted—Kiba and Hinata with the Aburame guy, Shikamaru, Chouji and Ino together, which elicited a great disappointed moan from the Yamanaka heir—she could feel herself become agitated. The ever-receding number of unsorted classmates were now looking all around them, gauging each other, and she felt the weight of their eyes on the back of her head, disapproving, annoyed.

"Team seven," Iruka announced. "Haruno Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto. Your instructor will be Hatake Kakashi."

It took a second for Naruto to realize what he'd just said. Sakura's yell of triumph washed over the disappointed groans of most of the other girls in the room. Ino's face grew red with anger, and she jumped to her feet.

"Sensei!" she cried. "Why does team seven have _two_ kunoichi in it? I thought we were supposed to be with two guys! Why does _Sakura_ get to be on Sasuke-kun's team when Naruto's already there?"

She was looking at their teacher with wild eyes, gesturing towards Sakura with such violence that she barely missed punching Shikamaru, who was sitting next to her, in the nose.

Iruka sighed, rubbing his forehead as if trying to wave off the beginnings of a headache. "While we do try to have at least one kunoichi per genin team, Ino-chan, there is no actual rule forbidding other arrangements. We are lucky enough to have more kunoichi than usual graduating this year, so some teams will have more girls than boys in them. I would have thought you'd welcome the change. You're usually very vocal about getting more girls enrolled at the Academy."

Ino spluttered, apparently at a loss for words. Sakura smirked then, and sing-songed loudly,

"Don't pay attention to blondie over there, Iruka-sensei. She's just jealous because she doesn't get to spend every day from now on with Sasuke-kun. Instead, she gets the laziest and most useless teammates ever!"

"Well at least I'm not on _Naruto_ 's team!" Ino shot back, teeth gritted in fury. Naruto's heart skipped a beat at that, because, well, she was on _Sakura_ 's team, and it _was_ kind of awesome. "Good luck with that one! She'll drag you down to her level, and then you'll realize how unlucky you were that I wasn't here in your place!"

"That's enough!" Iruka called then. The coldness in his voice stopped the two arguing girls in their tracks. "You two sit down, now. This is not the kind of behavior that any respectable jounin will accept. You're lucky your instructors aren't here to see this. You're adults now. Act like it."

The rest of the placements went much quicker after that. Sakura and Ino stayed silent, refusing to meet each other's eyes. Sasuke, as usual, didn't even seem to have noticed anything happening. Wonder boy probably thought he was too good to react to people fighting over his attention.

Naruto was highly aware of the jealousy burning in her throat. She swallowed, hoping to see it disappear. Unsurprisingly, it didn't.

After everyone had been placed into their respective teams—and Naruto was happy to note that one other team had two girls and one boy, who looked decidedly sullen about this fact— everyone started leaving the classroom. Sasuke didn't move a muscle, though. Keeping in mind what Iruka had said about trying to get to know your team mates, Naruto stayed as well. She noticed Sakura doing the same, and her heart fluttered slightly.

The silence that followed was not a comfortable one. Even Sasuke seemed to realize this, for he straightened up in his chair and turned to look at them both, still silent. His black eyes were for all intent and purposes digging a hole in the side of Naruto's face, so she turned to look at him as well.

"What?" she said, trying to sound more confident than she felt.

He smirked. "Just trying to understand how I got saddled with you of all people, dumbass." This was perhaps the longest sentence she'd ever heard him utter, but the anger that swallowed her whole at his careless words made her ignore that fact. "Although now that I think about it, I remember. They always make the best and worst of each class team up at the end, don't they? Guess we all know whose career is on to a promising start."

"You-"

The burning in her chest was back, sudden and more painful than before, making her stumble on her words. Sasuke took her hesitation as a sort of confession. He laughed, a short, ice-cold sound that went straight through her. His head came back to rest on his crossed arms, the perfect picture of high and mighty.

"Thought so," he added when it became evident that Naruto wouldn't say another word.

This wasn't how it was supposed to go, she thought helplessly, half of her still fuming silently, the other trying to hold back the insults she could feel on her lips. Sakura was watching them, frowning deeply, looking a whole lot like a deer caught in headlight.

Finally, Naruto forced herself to calm down. Iruka's words were still ringing in her ears. She concentrated on the memory of the acceptance in his eyes, on the skin-warm protector resting on her forehead.

She took a deep breath. "This isn't how it works," she said finally, perhaps more loudly than necessary.

Sasuke didn't move. _Jerk_ , she thought without heat. Sakura, however, looked at her directly, surprise etched onto her features. Naruto's heart sped up, but she managed not to blush.

"We're stuck together anyway, right?" she continued, and _this_ got the imbecile's attention. He threw her a disgusted look, which was probably his way of saying 'you don't deserve my attention so why are you still talking'. Way too many words to bother.

 _He's even worse than Shikamaru, I swear_.

"I just mean…" God, this was hard. She needed to make a point, here. She couldn't be the usual loudmouth, or they'd never take her seriously. What had Iruka said, again? Team work. The key to a successful shinobi career. "I guess none of us is satisfied with the outcome. But we don't really have a choice, do we? We're stuck together no matter what. They don't change the teams once they're made."

Well, she didn't know that for sure, but she'd never heard of teams being broken by something other than the death of one or several of its members. And as much as she loathed the thought of having to cooperate with goddamn Uchiha Sasuke, she'd rather he stay alive and well. His whole clan was already lost, after all. She could empathize with that, if nothing else. Growing up an orphan was hard.

"I don't want us to always resent our situation, okay. I mean, well, obviously we're not gonna start liking each other overnight-" Sakura's face became angry in a flash, and Naruto winced, "I mean- maybe it could happen. I don't know. But I think we should try to get along somehow. Don't you think?"

She tried not to fidget under their gaze. There was sweat gathering in her back and above her lips, and she itched to walk away from the room and forget she'd talked altogether.

"Maybe we should start by not insulting each other," she finished lamely.

"How noble of you," Sasuke deadpanned, making her cringe. She _did_ sound an awful lot like a child trying too desperately to make friends. _This isn't about your feelings_ , she remembered as her embarrassment threatened to take over, _this is about your career. This is your one shot at_ _becoming Hokage. Don't screw it up._

"Yeah, well, that's me, alright. Noble, always looking out for everyone else."

Sakura snorted loudly at that. She blushed immediately, covering her mouth with a hand, but the atmosphere lightened somewhat. Naruto had a hard time containing her grin at the thought that she'd surprised Sakura enough to make her forget the delicate persona she always tried so painstakingly to project. This was worth a hundred years of being Uchiha Sasuke's team mate.

"Whatever," said team mate mumbled, already going back to looking at nothing and pondering his no-doubt Very Important Uchiha thoughts.

"That was… surprisingly thoughtful, Naruto," Sakura said, approaching her.

It took Naruto a while to be able to speak. "A-Are you actually talking to me?" she blurted in a high-pitched tone.

Sakura hummed softly and sat down next to her. "Well, I don't really know you, but you don't seem to be after Sasuke-kun's love like Ino, so I guess that makes you okay. Not competition."

"Definitely not competition," she agreed quickly. "I actually don't know how anyone could possibly-"

"Shut _up_ , idiot," Sasuke groaned from his seat two rows down.

"Go back to sleep, jerk," she snapped back, a slight grin on her face.

"As if anyone could possibly sleep in your presence. Your voice is way too loud. You'll get killed on our first mission if you don't take a vow of silence."

Naruto relaxed. This was better. This was casual banter, not like the insults he'd delivered so coldly earlier. Not like Ino's dismissal. They might not ever become _friends_ , but she could live with this. And Sakura seemed a lot less nervous as well.

"So, um… Iruka-sensei said that we should try and get to know one another?" she told Sakura. "What kind of stuff do you like?"

x

It was a known fact that Kakashi never arrived anywhere early if he could help it. Those who knew him best—a very short list comprised of Asuma, Kurenai, Gai, and his landlady—had stopped caring a long time ago and simply taken to showing on average two hours after the appointed time every time they met. It worked, for the most part. Kakashi's limit was set somewhere before three hours.

He turned up at the Hokage tower three and a half hours after the briefing he was supposed to attend as one of the jounin instructors for this year's rookie genin. It was his petty way of showing how little he wanted to take on a team.

"Finally," Sarutobi said as Kakashi slid in through the window, jumping in place in one swift move.

"You should think about closing it sometimes," he simply answered. "Don't want to have to give

up that hat before your time."

"Oh, please," the Hokage chuckled. "I still have a few good years in front of me."

He tapped a finger against a file on his desk. _TEAM SEVEN_ was written on it in bold letters, and Kakashi tried to contain the sudden desire to rip the thin folder to shreds.

He hadn't wanted a genin team. He never had. Too many risks, too much involvement. Too many jounin coming home one day with ghosts in their eyes and blood crusting under their fingernails. The memories of Obito's crushed body and his own hand tearing Rin's heart out were still fresh in his mind, still keeping him awake at night. They would never stop.

"Do I have to do this?" he asked after a minute of silence. Sarutobi nodded, his expression somber.

"You know Sasuke-kun needs your help, Kakashi."

"I won't be able to help him much." He had said this before, a lot of times. "It wouldn't make any difference."

"Would you rather he be left to his own devices? Waking the Sharingan on his own, stewing in his anger? We would only give birth to a second Itachi."

They had already had this argument, and as usual Kakashi found himself forced to agree with Sarutobi. No, leaving the last Uchiha to his isolation wasn't a risk they could afford to take.

Sighing one last time, he took the folder and opened it, scanning its content briefly. He paused at his students' personal files and felt his heart miss a beat. Lifting his head, he found Sarutobi watching him intently, no doubt trying to gauge his reaction to this slight change of plan.

Well, Kakashi was done playing games.

"What is the meaning of this?" he asked briskly, throwing a page onto the Hokage's desk. The old man's eyes wandered for a second, taking in the picture of a young blond-haired girl smiling brightly.

"Uzumaki Naruto," he said in a neutral voice. "One of your students, as of today."

"I _know_ who she is." _Fucking old man_ , he didn't add. "What I want to know is what she's doing on my team, when you expressively promised me I wouldn't have to be anywhere near her."

Sarutobi winced visibly, but Kakashi was too angry and disappointed to care. The sharp tugging in his chest felt an awful lot like betrayal, and he was having to restrain himself from raising his voice. No matter how informal the Hokage liked to be with him, he was still the old man's soldier. You didn't raise your voice on him without facing the consequences.

"I hadn't planned on her graduating this year," Sarutobi admitted. "But she showed the required skills, even if she came last of her class. You know we pair the last and first together. It's what happened with you and Obito."

The jab at his old team stung, but not as much as the prospect of having to teach Minato's daughter.

"With all due respect, sir, this is a feeble excuse. You could have arranged otherwise. I don't know what your angle is here, whether it's some heartfelt attempt at making me 'deal with my feelings' or just because you get some sort of sick enjoyment out of messing with me, but I don't want her. And I won't train her."

"And who will, if you don't?"

Kakashi paused. Sarutobi hadn't yelled, exactly, but his words had felt like steel in the air. They looked at each other, refusing to back down, until at last the old man groaned and rubbed a hand against his forehead, the other busy rummaging through his drawers for his infamous pipe. He lit it with a fire jutsu—making a small yellow flame appear between his thumb and index finger before shaking it off. It was a wonderful show of chakra control and precision, but Kakashi refused to pay it any mind.

"Look, Kakashi," the old man began. He took a drag off the wooden pipe and exhaled slowly, suffusing the smell of tobacco and herb in the room, probably to the greatest annoyance of whichever ANBU was currently in charge of cleaning it.

"You have to understand, I did not gave her to you for my own 'sick enjoyment', as you nicely put it. I simply don't trust anyone else with her."

"And why should you trust _me_? I told you when you took me out of ANBU. No matter what happens, no matter how dire the situation, I want nothing to do with that girl. You said this wouldn't be a problem. You promised me I wouldn't have to get close to her."

There was an urgency in his limbs, a trembling in his hands. Kakashi clasped them at his sides, crumpling the folder he was still holding. The paper made a soft, creaking noise, and a sudden weight in his back let him know that at least one guard was standing nearby and tensing up, ready to intervene. He tried to control his breathing again.

"I did promise you," Sarutobi said. His face and body language expressed nothing but sadness mixed with determination, and Kakashi knew he had lost. "But, although I can understand your reasons, misguided as they are, for avoiding her, your feelings cannot take precedence over her safety. The fact is that whether or not you grow to like her as a person, I trust you to keep her safe. I'm afraid I cannot say the same of the other instructors this year."

Kakashi looked at the ground, his shoulders sagging. "Even your son?" he asked after a moment.

"Even my son," the Hokage answered, bowing his head.

Resentment hung heavy in the air. The guard outside hadn't made a move, but Kakashi could feel him more clearly now, which was as good a threat as any. He closed his eyes. His work here was done, he had his orders, and he had to follow them regardless of his feelings over the matter. That's what he did. That's what they all did.

He nodded curtly and jumped outside, away from the sick-sweet smell of the Third's old pipe. The ANBU guard was crouching under the windowsill, his porcelain mask reflecting the sunlight. He didn't make a sound when Kakashi tapped his shoulder, murmuring, "good day, Tenzou," before departing towards the Academy.

He still had time before he had to get there, he guessed. He knew the other jounin had probably gathered their own students and gone for testing already, but the day was still young. Still way too early for him to show up. And yet, he figured he should get this out of the way as soon as possible.

This day was full of surprises, he reflected darkly.

Asuma did a full double-take when he appeared outside the gates, cursing so loudly that he dropped the cigarette he was holding. Damn Sarutobis and their nicotine addiction.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Asuma asked

"Sensei!" a shrill voice exclaimed, and Kakashi finally noticed the three kids following his friend like a row of ducklings. The voice belonged to the blond one, a girl with angry lines etched onto her face. _Inoichi's daughter_ , he thought, seeing her pale blue eyes.

"Well, as you might have gathered, I am here to collect my own cute genin. They're very trendy. I see you already have yours."

"Yeah, but I never expected you to arrive on time…" Asuma frowned, and his eyes flickered to the Academy buildings. He hummed thoughtfully. "You know who they gave you, right?"

Kakashi didn't answer. Sarutobi Asuma had the most controlled mannerisms out of all the current jounin. His laziness was a carefully constructed shield that he could drop in a beat if the situation required him to. His poker face was almost as good as Kakashi's, which made the man a real pain to read. For all he knew, Asuma could had spent his entire life training it through glaring contests with the Hokage.

 _And yet Sarutobi doesn't trust him. I wonder why._

The other man didn't say anything else. He lit another cigarette, forgetting the one he'd dropped and artfully ignoring his students' open looks of disgust. He took off with one last wave in Kakashi's direction. Kurenai was nowhere to be seen, but that was no surprise. Unlike them, she was always right on time.

Kakashi walked the rest of the way. Leaping through the open window and watching his students' surprised faces would have been fun, but he needed to ground himself. Already he could see Uchiha Sasuke's eyes turned towards him, watching him approach. At least the boy wasn't completely unaware of his surroundings. If he hesitated for half a second before crossing the threshold of the dusty classroom, he didn't let it show.

What he found wasn't what he had expected. His 'team' were the last ones waiting in the room, Iruka having gone already, probably expecting him to show much later. He couldn't fault the man

for thinking like that. Sasuke was sitting by the window, glaring at him, brooding silently. The two girls were a bit further back, engrossed in each other. Or, at least, the pink-haired one was talking, and the other was listening. He released the breath he had been holding. Uzumaki's face was turned away and towards Haruno, drinking in her every word.

"You're late," Sasuke said, obviously annoyed.

"Am I?" Kakashi replied evenly, even as the other two ceased their chatter to look at him. Blue eyes met his, and time seemed to stop and go backwards for a very long second.

She didn't loon exactly like her father. Kakashi could see Kushina in the laugh lines around her mouth and the way her body shifted—restless, bursting with unused energy, constantly restraining herself from running or screaming. She certainly didn't have her father's natural talent and dedication, judging by her grades and the rumors he'd heard of her many mischiefs. The Fourth would have never forgotten his decorum like that.

But Minato was so _glaringly_ present in her. Her hair was the same as his, short and messy, framing her face in the exact same way. The forehead protector tied hastily on her forehead only reinforced the resemblance. She had the same eyes, and, God, apparently the same smile, the one so wide it made her skin crease at the corner of her eyes.

She was smiling at him, looking innocent and excited, and loathing shot through his entire body like an arrow. He felt nauseous.

"Well, I hate all of you already," he announced. Shocked looks met him, and he tried not to care. "Meet me on the roof."

He did leave through the window, just for the hell of it. The sun was high now, warming the tiles and the back of his neck. It was too hot for an end-of-summer afternoon. Too dry. A storm had finally ripped the sky the night before, cooling the air after a week of damp, sweaty heat that had made everyone exhausted and moody. Now the atmosphere was clear. The ponds littering the ground were vaporizing lazily. Yellowish grass spots burned in the light, already sprinkled with dead leaves.

It took five minutes for all of his team to find him. Sasuke had predictably jumped after him, showing off his athletic abilities. The girls had walked up the stairs instead, Haruno still talking, Uzumaki still looking at her like the sun shone out of her ass.

 _This might be problematic_ , he thought, taking in the picture they all made, familiar and foreignat once.

"Take place, take place," he told them, not trying to mask how little he wanted to be here. They all sat down, wincing as their little behinds hit the hot tiles. Even this didn't manage to make him smile. "Introduce yourselves. Likes, dislikes, ambitions. Uchiha, you go first."

It was unusual for genin teams and their instructors to use each other's last names. Instructors were supposed to build a trusting relationship with their students. Companionship, closeness even, was greatly encouraged, as it facilitated team work and moral support in case tragedy

happened or missions became difficult, which was always a possibility. Sasuke must have known this, because he looked at him strangely before speaking.

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I don't really want to talk about my likes and dislikes. My ambitions are to redeem my clan's name and… to kill a certain man."

 _Well, he certainly has his clan's proclivity for drama down_. Haruno and Uzumaki were bothlooking at the boy with wide eyes, suddenly at a loss for words.

"Haruno," he called.

"Huh, yes!" she answered, snapping out of her stupor. She shook her head. "My name is Haruno Sakura. I like- flowers, I guess. Reading. Canned peaches. My dislikes are…" she shoot a furtive glance at Uzumaki, who was smiling at her shyly, and hesitated. "I don't like bugs. I want to become a strong kunoichi, like Tsunade of the Sannin."

"What about you, Kakashi-sensei?" Uzumaki asked.

Kakashi reacted instantly. "That's Hatake for you," he said, keeping his voice coldly indifferent instead of the snarl that wanted to come out.

The girl looked disappointed but unsurprised. "Oh," she said. "Well, you can call me Naruto! I like noodles, tea, and when the hot water doesn't run out. I don't like snakes and bullies. I'm going to become the first female Hokage Konoha has ever seen, you just wait!"

She had the same language tics as her mother. The same voice, going up and down, exposing her every emotion to the world. And her father's smile, still lighting her young face.

 _I can't do this_ , Kakashi thought.

"You've all graduated now," he said instead, ignoring the girl's outburst. "But you're not genin yet."

A silence. " _What_?" Haruno and Uzumaki yelled as one. Sasuke simply glared.

"The truth is, the exam you took is just here to determine whether or not you have a chance to become genin. After that it's up to the jounin in charge to decide to pass you… or not."

He looked at them—well, at Haruno and Sasuke. He couldn't look at Uzumaki. They were angry, he decided, and anxious, and he toyed with the thought of leaving them hanging for a while longer.

"We're going to have survival training tomorrow. I'm going to test you, and I'll decide what to do then. You should know that students who graduate have a sixty percent rate of failure at this. Only two or three teams will continue as genin this year. The others will go back to the Academy. I've never passed a team before myself," he added as an afterthought, and yes, he confirmed with a glance, Sasuke was getting paler by the second.

"B-But why did no one tell us?" Haruno despaired, her eyes already tearing up. Uzumaki was

unnaturally still in his peripheral vision. He told himself it didn't matter.

"Why do you think?" Kakashi took out a kunai and played with it absent-mindedly, waiting to see if they would get it. As expected, only Sasuke did.

"The announcement, and how we react to it, is part of the test," the boy told them.

"Exactly. Nice to see someone has a brain around here." That last statement had perhaps been a little unnecessary. But Haruno finally shut her gaping mouth and glared at him with all her strength, her tears forgotten. He ignored her. "Be on training field ten tomorrow morning at five. Don't bother eating breakfast, you'll just throw it back up. See you."

Avoiding the questions they tried to shout at him, he used the body flicker to leave quickly. He wasn't _fleeing_ , not really. He wasn't afraid of three would-be genin, no matter how many painful memories stirred in his chest at the sight of them. He just disliked kids in general, and especially kids who wanted to become ninja. Brainwashed little bastards who didn't realize what they were sacrificing. He should have said that when Uzumaki asked about him.

Even thinking her surname was painful. As much as he'd tried to dislike Kushina at first, the woman had painstakingly managed to worm her way into his heart. She had been so terribly lovely. So bright she was blinding, so full of life, so eager to try everything she could. Deadly and beautiful. Talented, cheerful, forgiving. Minato hadn't stood a chance.

Kakashi dearly hoped her daughter wasn't anything like her.

He slept badly, that night. Not that he ever slept well; and, after all, he could take any genin squad half asleep without any problem. He wasn't worried about the following day. But this time was different. His prospective students' faces flashed through his mind ceaselessly. They were so _small_. Had he ever been so small? Surely, he had not. And yet he could remember how they had mocked him at the chuunin exam, how very surprised they had been that such a small boy could be so lethal. Thinking back, he could understand the Third's lack of enthusiasm at his early promotions, and the swift reforms that had struck the Academy after Itachi lost it and killed his whole clan. No six-year-old should have a killing record. No teenager should be used as a political pawn, forced to stretch himself so thin between his family and his nation that he collapsed in on himself and did the unthinkable.

He surprised himself at his thoughts. Meeting Sasuke had had more of an impact on him than he had expected, if he was thinking of Itachi. _This_ pain had long since dwindled, in the face of the atrocities his once-team mate had committed. But the regret had stayed. He couldn't help wondering if something could have been done to prevent the slaughter of the Uchiha clan.

Not that he would ever _pity_ Itachi, or have mercy on him, if their paths were ever to cross again. Nothing could excuse what he had done.

Kakashi was awake when the sun rose. Eyes wide open, he watched pinkish lines of light crisscross on his ceiling, sliding through the cracks in his blinds. It was around six, he surmised, which meant that his students were already waiting for him. With a snort, he took his time with his usual morning ablutions. They could be patient. They would have to be, in order to work with

him. Besides, he already knew he would pass them. Sarutobi's words the day before left him little choice: regardless of his feelings on the matter, he would end up teaching Sasuke how to use his Sharingan, and Uzumaki Naruto would be put in his care. Should as well do it now and spare himself the pain later on. The kids could sit on their asses for three hours, in exchange for getting the freebie their former classmates were no doubt praying for.

It was high light outside when he finally left his apartment. The weather was colder and more windy than it had been since the beginning of summer. Some of the villagers were wearing light coats, woolen jackets, shawls. A brazier or two were lit in nearby restaurants, to cut out the breeze for early customers.

His students were waiting in a similar configuration to the one that had welcome him back at the Academy: Uzumaki and Haruno were babbling mindlessly, and Sasuke was sitting away from them, watching him arrive silently.

"You're _late_ ," whined Haruno upon noticing his presence. "At least three hours late. God, why did we get stranded with the lame sensei?"

"I'm surprised to see you're even still waiting," Kakashi answered airily, willing to let her insolence slide this time. He would train her out of that attitude, in time.

"Sasuke told us it was part of the test!" Uzumaki exclaimed loudly, revealing again her complete inability to be discreet.

"It was," he lied, nodding at the boy—he refused to look at her. Not yet. Not until he really had to.

 _At least they have basic information-sharing down_ , he thought, holding back a snort whenSasuke tried fruitlessly to hide the smug expression on his face. _They'll need it, if they want to_ _survive. He and Uzumaki are two potential prime targets for enemies of the village_.

His visible eye swept over Haruno's disappointed expression. _She'll have to learn, too._ _Especially if the word gets out about Konoha having a genin jinchuuriki_. _She'll be easy prey if she doesn't._

He wondered what price the Hokage would make him pay if he took the girl apart and told her about her little friend's _condition_. Not death, he was sure. Even without Obito's eye, the Hatake legacy was too important for the elders. Really, Sarutobi should have thought his law more thoroughly.

No matter. He would not tell her yet. She would have to know anyway, at one point. In the meantime, he would fantasize about making the girl scared of her team mate and taking some of his frustration out on Uzumaki at the same time. He was too tired, too restless after spending the night sitting on insipid scenarios of revenge against Sarutobi, to feel ashamed.

Kakashi rummaged through his backpack and took out a clock. He left it on top of the memorial stone Sasuke was leaning against, and turned to face his students again.

"Okay," he said when he had their entire attention. Which was no small feat, considering Uzumaki kept shooting suspicious glances at the clock every two seconds, fidgeting on her feet.

Great.

"It's set to ring at noon," he continued. "This how long you have to take _these_ -" he held two bells up between his fingers, "away from me. Whoever doesn't have a bell when the alarm rings gets sent back to the Academy. Furthermore, the one among you who will have performed the most terribly will be tied to that post behind me and forced to watch as the others get to eat lunch in front of him or her. You can begin now."

"Wait-" Haruno began, but Sasuke cut her off.

"There's only two bells," he growled. "Which means that only two of us get to pass, right?"

"Right," Kakashi acquiesced.

"But that's just unfair!" Uzumaki exploded, her shrill voice ringing painfully in his ears. "It doesn't make any sense! You can't have just two genin in a squad!"

"The teams are re-made once the jounin have decided who passes and who stays behind," he replied easily. "It's a pain, but we always manage to get three genin per team in the end."

"But what about team work?" the girl asked angrily.

"Yeah," Haruno added, sending dark looks to her only male team mate, "I thought we were supposed to learn how to function together. What's the point of pitting us against each other?"

"None of this matters," Sasuke objected coldly, abandoning his spot against the stone and looking Kakashi straight in the eye. "Obviously this team work idea is all bullshit from Academy teachers who never get into _real_ trouble. I don't know about you two, but I don't intend to become a lousy teacher. I want to be a shinobi. I don't need hindrances like you around."

 _You're wrong_ , Kakashi thought with sadness, but he readied his stance. "The clock is ticking,kids. I suggest you make the best of the allotted time and try to make it at least interesting. I'm warning you," he added, using a weak genjutsu—a trick learned from Kurenai—to create fear in their minds, "you won't get these bells if you don't come at me with the intent to kill."

The boy's eyes glinted, and he disappeared.

 _The body flicker?_ But then, _No. He doesn't have the control for that technique yet. He's just very fast_. Kakashi could sense his presence in the nearby trees, although not his exact location.

 _As expected from Itachi's brother. He's way above the average genin_.

"Whoa," Uzumaki said. She was looking at where Sasuke had been a moment ago, wide-eyed.

"Come on, Naruto," Haruno was saying hurriedly, watching Kakashi with a frown, "we need to go too."

"Why?"

But the other was already taking off. Uzumaki seemed confused, and, after a one-second glance in his direction—familiar blue eyes piercing his flesh, it seemed, so painful were they— followed after the pink-haired girl.

Kakashi waited for a moment, but it didn't seem as though any of his students would come at him directly. Sighing, he sat down, and took his book out of his pocket. They would find him, eventually. He didn't see the necessity of chasing after them. If he did, it would be over way too soon. There were still almost three hours on the clock. Best let them plan a bit and watch as their hopes of graduating were crushed.

Unsurprisingly, Uzumaki was the first to find him. Barely twenty minutes had passed.

"Is that _porn_?" she said indignantly, pointing at the cover of Icha Icha. Kakashi hummed in response, turning a page, but even his upcoming favorite scene—Yako-chan getting out of the hot springs and stumbling into the arms of the narrator, towel slipping down her wet body— couldn't erase the knot in his guts. Uzumaki was still watching him. Not attacking, not even yelling, in spite of everything in her file that had made her out to be easily goaded into aggression.

"You're not even going to answer me, are you?" she asked, and there was something there, in the flatness of her voice and the defeated set of her shoulders. Kakashi didn't look at her face. He was already intimately familiar with the expression he was sure she was sporting.

"Well, I'm going to get one of these bells anyway! Kage Bunshin!" she called, and five clones appeared around her with a popping sound.

 _Impressive_ , he thought reluctantly. The shadow clone technique was a high-level infiltration jutsuthat a lot of jounin didn't have the chakra reserves to learn. Obviously, this wasn't one of her problems.

 _Although_ , he gathered, straightening up as multiple bright-orange shapes moved in hisperipheral vision, _she obviously missed the memo about this being an_ infiltration _technique. It_ _won't be much use to her in combat_.

He easily avoided her attacks, not taking his eyes off his book, even if he wasn't reading it anymore. This served two purposes: the first one was to make the gap between their abilities excruciatingly clear. Recognizing one's limits was paramount in the training of any shinobi. The second reason was that it allowed him to train his right eye. Responding to moving targets, even ones as weak as these, without looking directly at them, was always useful. His defeat against Hyuuga Hizashi still stung him viciously, even long after the man's death, even after the priceless lesson his own father had taught him because of it.

There was a reason the Hatakes always wore masks.

The girl was still making clones, almost as fast as he was popping them out of existence, without showing any signs of fatigue or chakra exhaustion. Her reserves were way larger than

any genin's ought to be. This was probably the Kyuubi's doing. Her chakra coils must be thicker and tougher than any of her classmates', in order to survive if the beasts's chakra were to leak out of the Fourth's seal.

Kakashi blinked. One of the clones he'd just thrown off course by its ankle had been smoothly intercepted by another and sent back flying at him. He jumped out of the way without trouble. But his eyes were no longer on Icha Icha.

"Hah! I have your attention now," the girl chuckled. Her breath was starting to falter, at last.

 _Her clones are very coordinated_. _That was a nice move. She must have been training with them for a while_.

Maybe he would have to rethink that bit about the technique being useless in a fight. True, most shinobi only had enough energy to create one or two clones at a time. The strength of this technique—the solid clones, exact replicas of their original, with roughly the same capacity for thought and the very useful ability to transfer everything they learned to the technique user upon being dismissed or killed—was also its weakness: this technique, albeit simple in its execution, was extremely greedy in chakra reserves. But with what he'd observed so far… Uzumaki could make it work. Maybe. If she learned some discipline.

Uzumaki made three new clones. Kakashi felt another presence behind him, hidden by the trunk of a great oak tree. _Another clone? No… She wouldn't have been able to slip one past me at_ _her level_. He sniffed, focusing some chakra in his nostrils. There was flowery perfume in theair, not discreet enough to escape him. _Haruno, then_. The girls were out of luck. The wind was wild, changing directions often, and although she had obviously done all she could to prevent being found, Haruno didn't know scent-tracking was a speciality of his.

He refocused on the student facing him when she attacked together with her clones. He was about to take a step backwards to avoid them when his ears picked up the sound of flying steel. He ducked down. A kunai flew past his head, a little ill-aimed, and burrowed itself in one of the clones. Haruno let out a startled yelp, no doubt thinking she'd just hit her own team mate.

Kakashi flattened the real Uzumaki to the ground, using an earth technique to trap her hands in mud. He then made his own clone, who appeared in the branches above Haruno's hiding spot, and caught the girl in a mild genjutsu. The blood-curling scream she let out was highly satisfying.

"That was easy," he told Uzumaki to rile her up. Predictably, the girl tried to kick him in the balls. He trapped her legs as well. She resigned herself to swearing colorfully at his face, yelling revenge and demanding to know what had happened to her team mate.

He ignored her. Picking himself off the ground, he narrowed his eye at the tree line, trying to locate Sasuke's chakra. He had felt the boy approach after Haruno's scream, but he still couldn't pinpoint his presence.

"You can come out now," he called. "Your comrades already failed, it's just you and me. I'd rather end this quickly, if you don't mind."

There was a silence. Then footsteps echoed in the clearing, and with them the sounds of twigs breaking under well-worn sandals and dry leaves being ground to dust.

Kakashi felt the heat before he saw it. Alarm running through his mind, he jumped as high as he could, channelling chakra into his feet, and landed on top of the wooden post he had promised he'd attach one of his students to earlier. A great scarlet fireball was burning where he had stood a second ago. The old Uchiha technique reduced the grass to ash in a five-meter radius, so hot it made the soil crack open. When it vanished, an acrid smell lingered, making his eye water.

Sasuke was standing away from the now dead spot, still in the position he'd used for his technique.

"That was very impressive," Kakashi commented, watching with casual amusement as the boy jumped in surprise. Immediately, he hid his startled expression and glared. "Students fresh out of the Academy aren't usually this proficient in ninjutsu, apart from the basics. Did someone teach you that?"

Sasuke's face darkened considerably at his last words. _Yeah, thought that would get you,_ Kakashi reflected. Well, tough luck. The boy would have to get used to cold remarks about his lost family and his affiliation to a known traitor. His classmates at the Academy might have been too intimidated, and his teachers too soft, but Kakashi was not. And neither was the rest of the world.

"Come on, then, Sasuke." He put his book away and adopted a taijutsu stance he had learned from Gai. "Give me your worst."

"Fine," Sasuke spat out, and charged.

Immediately, Kakashi realized that putting Icha Icha away had been the right thing to do. While nowhere near strong enough to really challenge him, Sasuke was on a whole other level compared to the two girls on his team. He was faster, yes, but also more controlled. His moves spoke of rigid training, of self-discipline the likes of which Uzumaki and Haruno had probably never heard of, much less experienced. And he was clever. His grades were best in strategy and quick thinking. A true genius. He would never _beat_ Kakashi at his current level, but he might just be cunning enough to get the bells from him.

Soon enough, though, Sasuke started tiring. After he managed to touch one bell from the tip of his finger in a rather brilliant move, his arrogance seemed to get the better of him. His attacks became more predictable, less inventive. He was, for lack of a better word, _lazy_. This told Kakashi more than he needed to know about the boy's most glaring flaws.

 _I'm ending this_ , he decided. He had seen enough. Using the same jutsu he'd trapped Uzumakiwith, he buried Sasuke in mud up to his shoulders, leaving enough space for his ribs to expand and breathe. He didn't want to choke the boy, after all. Sarutobi would have his head, Sharingan or no.

"Nice try," he said cheerfully, patting the outraged boy's head. "Still not good enough, though."

He walked away. The entire ordeal had taken less than thirty minutes, and only ten of those had been spent fighting. There was still more than two hours left on the clock. Overall, they hadn't exceeded his expectations. Despite Sasuke's natural talent, Uzumaki's surprising control over her clones and Haruno's quick thinking—he didn't doubt that the girls' poorly-planned attack was her idea—they never managed to get close to threatening him.

At least the girls had tried to cooperate. Sasuke was ahead of them in almost everything, but he would get killed fast and easy if he maintained his hostility towards team work. Hopefully they'd rub off on him in that respect.

It wasn't a good team. Somewhere inside him, the remnants of his objective thinking was telling him, 'you've worked with worse', but he refused to listen. They were an _awful_ team. Their skills were incompatible. Their respective levels were too uneven. Sasuke would be difficult to work with in and of himself, but given who he was paired with… the boy was already made of psychological issues piled on top of one another. Uzumaki probably had her own sob story of a life to deal with as a jinchuuriki. As for Haruno, she was blissfully unaware, but also more in danger than almost all of them. She didn't come from a clan, didn't have any concrete understanding of life as a shinobi. She was one of those paper-smart types that never lasted long on the field. They died, or put their teams in danger with their inability to cope.

The more Kakashi thought about it, the less he thought he would be able to go anywhere with this team. Usually teams were specialized. Gai's genin were an assault team that concentrated on taijutsu, their skills honed to perfect compatibility. What one of them lacked, the other two made up for. They weren't close, a fact Gai spent most of their time together bemoaning heartily, but they were mature enough to know how to put aside their personal feelings. They worked well. They would undoubtedly become one of the village's deadliest trios, on par with Inoichi, Chouza, and Shikaku.

The Hokage had probably hoped that Kakashi's wide array of skills would palliate his students' weaknesses. It was true that while Kakashi came from a family of ninja that specialized in information-gathering and tracking missions, Obito's Sharingan had allowed him to expand his genius elsewhere as well. He possessed enough techniques now to get himself out of every possible scenario. He still mainly took spying and solo assassination orders, but he could lead an assault squad if need be.

But even he couldn't cover for all the weaknesses these kids had. He knew it was the only possible combination for them, as Sarutobi seemed to have his hands tied as well. But it was too risky. How could he ever make them all _work_?

The first thing to alert him about the fact that something was wrong was the silence. He stopped in his tracks. When he had left this side of the field earlier, the clearing had resonated with Uzumaki's yells and Haruno's desperate sobbing. Not anymore. The wind was still blowing, strong as ever, ruffling the leaves. The rumble it made was loud enough to cover his own breathing. The spot of earth he had left Uzumaki in was empty, dug through in four different places where her limbs had been stuck.

Kakashi took a step forward, and the unmistakable sound of a wire being pulled made his heart skip a beat.

He used Kawarimi, and not a second too soon: the log that took his place got hit on all sides by about twenty shuriken. Thin strips of bark were ripped off and sent flying by the violence of the impacts.

"Damn it," Uzumaki growled, jumping into the clearing with Haruno's arm over her shoulder, supporting her weight, "I was _sure_ we had him this time!"

"Calm down, Naruto," Haruno answered. She was panting, her muddy face strewn with tear tracks. Her hands, covered in dirt, were clutching at her leg, which was bleeding from a nasty cut.

"But your plan was perfect," Uzumaki pouted.

"Hatake-sensei is an experienced jounin. We can't expect him to fall for such a simple trap. We'll have to find another way to get these damn bells."

This… was not something Kakashi would have predicted. He put his hands in his pocket and fell down from where he was perched, landing about a dozen meters away from the girls.

"Ha! Found you!" Uzumaki exclaimed, pointing wildly at his face.

"Yeah, you did," he drawled. _Even if technically,_ I _found_ you. But he was curious, all the same. "Care to explain how?"

Uzumaki grinned. "Sakura-chan is a winner," she declared proudly.

The other girl blushed a little before answering, "Not really," in a small voice. "It took me a long time to figure out you wouldn't _really_ kill Sasuke-kun, and that I was probably in the middle of a genjutsu. I cut my leg to break it, because I remember Iruka-sensei saying that pain was one of the ways to free yourself from an illusion, and then I found Naruto."

"She dug me out with her _bare hands_ ," Uzumaki said, worship in her eyes. "It was _so cool_. And then she told me she'd had an idea about a trap, and since her leg hurt she told me what to do and I did it. And then we caught you!"

Haruno was still blushing, mumbling and trying to remind the other that the plan hadn't worked, really, but Kakashi wasn't listening.

It was an interesting turn of events, to say the least. In the few minutes it'd taken to subdue Sasuke, they had come up with a rather clever trap. Well, Haruno had. But Uzumaki, brash, undisciplined Uzumaki, had complied eagerly. In fact, she had never tried to attack him on her own, he realized. They had worked in tandem from the start. This showed a maturity that their other team mate was very far from achieving.

Tension built up between them. He was aware, as were they, that they stood no chance of getting the bells from him now. Sakura was hurt, unable to walk by herself. The genjutsu had exhausted her mentally as well as physically—her voice was rough, barely a whisper. Uzumaki would have probably come at him anyway, if it wasn't for that fact. She kept looking between her friend's injured leg and Kakashi's location, perhaps trying to establish how long it would take

for her to flee while supporting Haruno.

This answered his earlier question.

"Test is over, girls and boys," he told them.

The two girls looked up at him in astonishment, jaw dropped unattractively. He smiled. Somehow this must have shown through his mask, because they seemed to relax minutely, still confused.

He formed the seals for a shadow clone. "Go fetch Sasuke," he told it, before turning back to his now official students. "Haruno, let me see that leg before it gets infected. You go wait by the stone," he gestured vaguely in Uzumaki's direction.

She breathed an annoyed 'fine' before carefully lowering Haruno to the ground, answering the other girl's smile, and taking off towards where the clock still sat. A moment later, while he tended to the shallow cut as well as he could without the help of a medic, he heard a string of colorful swearing. Uzumaki's wild laughter answered it. She was cut short, however, and started yelling too. He surmised that his clone was tying her to the post, as he had wished.

"There," he said, getting up. He helped Haruno do the same, but let her walk alone. She would suffer worse injuries in the future. Better that she get used to fighting through them now than when it mattered.

Once they were all at the stone, he paused. Haruno and Sasuke sitting down, sulking quietly, looking in opposite directions. Uzumaki was struggling against the rope tying her in place, whining about one thing or another. Kakashi looked at them for a long minute before speaking.

"You all fail," he declared.

As expected, his statement earned him a vicious glare from Sasuke, a teary look from Haruno, and an angry cry from Uzumaki.

"We're not the ones tied like idiots," Sasuke said, shaking his head towards Uzumaki. The girl answered by suggesting he do something terribly painful-sounding involving his ass and one of the Uchiha fans he was so fond of. It would have been hilarious, just for the scandalized expression on his face, but Kakashi refused to find anything Uzumaki said relevant in any way. He was petty like that.

"Still, none of you managed to get a bell. Do you think Konoha needs shinobi so weak they can't pass the first test their sensei gives them?"

The boy had no answer to that. Haruno didn't cry, thankfully, but her face was so pale she looked like a ghost. She was certainly thinking about her parents' reaction. It was Kakashi's understanding that they had disapproved of her enrollment at the Academy. She must be wondering how to face them still, after failing so spectacularly on her first real challenge. He could see her curl in on herself, hiding her face, eyes fixed on her bloody hands.

Uzumaki was not so silent. She squirmed, and kicked, and grunted, doing everything she could

to slip between her bounds. She would fail, he already knew. His clone had tied her solidly.

"The fact that she was the worst out of you all doesn't mean you were good," Kakashi finally said, looking up at the clouds, sliding his hands into his pockets. He fingered the cover of Icha Icha, but didn't take it out. "In my eyes, you're all equally lousy."

"I was rookie of the year," Sasuke protested.

"So what? Academy grades don't mean anything if you can't apply them to reality. You were better than them at hand-to-hand and ninjutsu, but you tried to play it cool, and that was ultimately what made you fail. Well, that and your arrogance." His student reddened and opened his mouth, but Kakashi cut him. "The girls at least _tried_ to work together. Their first attempt was risible, but Haruno had enough ingenuity to build up a pretty good plan in very little time. She could have avoided hurting herself so badly that she was immobilized, though. Pricking your finger or biting your lips would have been enough to break you out of a genjutsu of this caliber," he informed the girl, and she nodded blankly.

"What about me?" Uzumaki asked.

Kakashi eyed her. "There's a reason you're tied up and not them, isn't there?"

"Yeah, I bet there is," she replied angrily. And then she shut up, eyes wide, and paled.

Cold sweat gathered in his back. Thankfully, neither of her team mates seemed to have noticed her maladresse. Taking his eye away from her suddenly prone and silent form, he cleared his throat.

"Haruno and Sasuke, you can eat. There's food in my backpack over there. _Don't_ ," he growled, "give her anything. She has to watch, that's part of the punishment."

His body flicked out of their sight. Releasing a tired sigh, he leaned against the trunk of the tree he was hiding in, and started thinking.

Did Uzumaki know about the Kyuubi? That was supposed to be impossible. As much as he enjoyed the leeway his unique position in the village gave him, Kakashi knew that none of the villagers, shinobi or not, could escape breaking the Third's law. That didn't mean they couldn't find ways around it and, indeed, plant the seeds of hatred into their children's hearts, but none of them could have outright told the girl and walked away with their head intact. He might survive the punishment, but they would not. And he had certainly had no contact with the girl previous to being saddled with her the day before.

A shinobi had disappeared recently, he remembered in a flash. An Academy teacher. He was reported for stealing a scroll of forbidden techniques from the tower, was supposed to have been delivered the usual slap on the wrist that accompanied petty crimes like those—the supposedly private Hokage library had long been considered reserve of sorts for most jounin, and they had all broken in at least once before—and had then vanished. As far as Kakashi knew, no one was even looking for him.

And the scroll in question had contained the shadow clone technique…

 _Yeah_ , he thought, watching from aside as his students gleefully disobeyed him and startedfeeding Uzumaki. _Sarutobi has a lot of talking to do_.


	2. Chapter 2

**Trigger warnings** : mentions of child abuse/neglect and genocide.

 **Chapter 2**

Honestly, I'm overwhelmed by the response to this fic :) 53 subscribers, you guys are amazing. Also, I'm really too shy to answer all your reviews, but I want to address some of your questions: while this story is rated M, there won't be any sexual content in the near future. They're twelve. Let them grow. Eventually, there will be some smexy action, but not for a long time.

Enjoy this second chapter (22k words, holy crap).

 **Walking With a Ghost**

Chapter 2.

Sakura fiddled with her forehead protector once more. Ever since graduation, she had taken to wearing in her hair the way she wore her ribbons. She wasn't used to the weight of the metal on her scalp, though, or to the way it had to be tied in order not to fall off. She couldn't risk losing it, after all. Maybe she should start wearing it correctly, like Naruto and Sasuke did, she reflected. Next to her, Ino cursed as the box the was holding fell from her grip and spilled its content all over the floor.

The mission they were doing today required two teams. They were helping an "old people house", as Naruto called it, move its location farther away from the center of the village. Apparently, the bar its residents had been neighboring for years was well-liked of adult shinobi, and had suffered an increase in popularity among young graduates. The noise prevented them from sleeping, and they had requested the village's help in moving into a cosy little building not far from the gates.

Unfortunately, while the residents were pretty much all adorable old ladies and men, they couldn't help themselves. Which meant that, since Hatake and Asuma-sensei apparently shared the habit of being utterly useless, the six genin were left moving everything around, furniture and smaller possessions alike.

And there were a _lot_ of possessions.

"How did they manage to gather so many trinkets in the same place?" Ino muttered unhappily, crouching to retrieve everything.

"They probably don't have many better things to do," Sakura replied. The box had been full of board games, little figures, framed photographs. Thankfully none of it had broken in the fall. She put her own box aside and sat down to help.

The others were busy moving the tables, chairs, wardrobes and beds. Or, well, Naruto was. With some help from Sasuke. Shikamaru and Chouji were laying down, face up, apparently napping. This didn't seem to bother the other two very much, seeing as they were the strongest of the lot physically, and Naruto had created a few clones to speed up the process.

"You really landed on the laziest team ever," Sakura commented, looking briefly and the two

napping boys. Their teacher, Asuma, was sitting next to them, smoking contentedly. Hatake-sensei had said he had 'things to do' more than an hour ago, and hadn't showed up again.

"Yeah, they're completely useless. Sensei isn't even trying to get them to improve. I feel like I'm the only one making any progress." Ino let out a long-suffering sigh, before wiping dust from her tunic and getting up. She frowned in the direction of her teammates. "Look at these idiots.

Honestly, how am I supposed to go anywhere with this lot?"

Sakura giggled. The others had been asleep for a while, and Ino had taken advantage of this to rant about them—and at some point, _at_ them—in total impunity. Asuma-sensei had seemed fine with this, even laughed a few times before going back to looking at nothing, smoke curling away from his face.

 _Not at nothing_ , she realized suddenly. His eyes were moving around, following Naruto and hervarious copies. That was strange. Did they know each other? His expression was impassible as ever, but she felt cold, suddenly. Like metal in her chest and the back of her throat. She shivered.

"So, how is it, being on Sasuke-kun's team?" Ino asked, ripping her out of her reverie. "I hope you don't think you'll be able to get him to fall for you just because you spend more time with him. Everyone knows I'm the good-looking one."

Sakura snorted. "You can have him, Piglet," she replied, walking away without looking back, a final touch to the grand revelation.

Certainly, Ino didn't stay shocked into silence for too long. " _What_?" she shrieked, and almost dropped her box again.

Sakura resisted the urge to laugh. Ino was so predictable. She refused to look sideways, even if she was dying to see her friend's face, and kept walking towards the exit.

"Are you joking? What happened to you? What have you done to Sakura? I don't see you for a month and suddenly you don't want to date Sasuke anymore? We've been fighting about this for _years_!"

"Well, I don't want to fight with you anymore," Sakura replied loftily. It was the truth. She and Ino had been friends once, the best of friends, and she couldn't believe that she'd let a _boy_ come before that friendship. But it wasn't the only reason why she'd had to reevaluate her infatuation with the Uchiha heir.

Sasuke, she had reluctantly come to understand, was very _mean_.

He had absolutely no qualms about insulting his teammates or his teacher. And, granted, Hatake-sensei had his flaws, and she wasn't especially glad to have someone like him instructing her, but still. He was a jounin, and a good one if her research was reliable, which it always was, so he deserved their respect. But, she had been forced to admit, respect wasn't one of Sasuke's priorities.

He insulted them. He belittled them, mocked them for how much stronger than them he was. No matter that Sakura had had better grades than him in some subjects, or that her chakra control was exemplary, the boy simply felt that his status as a genius made him better than them in every way. He took everything from granted, be it Hatake-sensei's blatant favoritism or the frankly unwarranted respect the villagers gave him. He was horrible to Naruto, and barely acknowledged Sakura's presence on the team.

She frowned. Team seven wasn't anything like she had expected. When Iruka-sensei had announced that she would be with Sasuke and Naruto, well. She had thought that Sasuke would be a good teammate. That he would open up some and try to help them get to his level. That he would show talent in making a team work, just as he showed talent in everything else. And, yes, that eventually he would have recognized how much of a catch she was. She had thought that Naruto would be dead weight. Always pulling pranks like she did at the Academy, retaking every test thrice before getting it, never showing the will to improve. Boasting about becoming Hokage, of all things.

And while some of this was still true—the other girl was loud, and unapologetic, and had trouble understand the simplest things sometimes—she was just now realizing how badly she had misjudged the classmates she had known for years.

Naruto might not be the best kunoichi, but she was never mean to anyone. She bantered, she shoved and pushed and annoyed, but she never insulted, not the way Sasuke did, targeting weak spots and pounding them until they bled. Naruto took every mission seriously, even when she spent the whole time moaning about wasting her talent. She answered Hatake-sensei's ice-cold behavior towards her with smiles, and she never talked badly to Sakura. In fact, her friendliness and the tentative companionship they had formed over the course of the month was the best thing about team seven.

She was without a doubt the most surprising person Sakura had ever met. Naruto was simply so _eager_ to be her friend, and Sakura had never met anyone who wanted to get close to her like that. She could remember the other girls mocking her hair and her face. Only Ino's intervention had finally earned her some popularity, as nobody wanted to be at odds with one of the clan brats. She couldn't remember Naruto being part of these people, though. Naruto had always hung out with the boys, skipping "girl lessons" to go bother the chuunin in the training field behind the Academy or to have mud fights with Kiba and Chouji. Sakura couldn't recall ever seeing Naruto in the flower arrangement and seduction lectures. In fact, she had barely ever talked to the girl before becoming her teammate.

She felt badly about that. She had been so hung up on chasing Sasuke's interest that she had completely ignored the little girl in orange clothes who always greeted her every morning.

"Are you okay, Sakura?" Ino asked suddenly, making her jump. They had reached the cart waiting at the end of the street, already full of various pieces of furniture and cardboard boxes filled with belongings.

"Ah, yes." She chuckled, and smiled warmly at Ino, who was looking at her like she had suddenly grown a third eye. "Don't worry about me. But, yes, I'm over Sasuke. Definitely." Probably. The boy _was_ too pretty for his own good.

"This is so weird," Ino declared. Sakura nodded, thoughtful.

"I meant what I said, you know. I don't want to fight with you anymore. Do you think we could be friends again? Real friends, I mean."

Ino didn't answer immediately. She strapped her box to the others, and then sighed, wiping her brow. The sun was hot, baking the pavement and the top of their heads. This was the hottest day of october, and probably the last truly warm day of the year. It was a shame to spend it working. She envied Shikamaru and Chouji, as useless as they were. At least their sensei was lax enough that he didn't mind seeing them slack on the job. If Hatake-sensei ever saw her, or Naruto and Sasuke, take a nap in the middle of a mission, he'd take it out on their hide.

"I'm still a better kunoichi than you," Ino said. Her smile was terse, but genuine. "But I guess we could have a movie night some time soon. If you want."

"I guess it doesn't hurt to have _dreams_ ," Sakura drawled, avoiding the other girl's punch with a smile.

Naruto chose this moment to appear before them, having apparently jumped from the nearest roof. Ino made a surprised sound, but Sakura was used to it by now. Naruto could never just _walk_.

"Me and Sasuke are done with the beds, and the clones are helping him with the last of the desks and tables," she informed them primly, counting on her fingers. "Old man Takeru says thanks, the lady with all the statuettes says we don't need to wrap those up because she'll ask a professional, and, huh… oh, yeah! Could we take a break for lunch soon? We've been at it all morning, and you know how grumpy the bastard gets when his stomach is empty."

A popping nose and puff of smoke interrupted her. Hatake-sensei was standing on a trash bin, looking as bored as ever.

"You have _got_ to teach me that technique," Naruto muttered, eyes shining.

Hatake ignored her. "Good job," he told them shortly. "How much longer do you think it'll take you to move everything?"

Sakura frowned at him, crossing her arms. "Well, if _someone_ decided to help us, maybe it'd go faster. Also, where have you been all morning? You can't just leave during a mission, Hatake-sensei!"

"I figured you didn't need my help with something so simple. Asuma's team isn't complaining. Are you already tired? I thought I'd trained you better than that."

The jab was obviously meant for Naruto. The girl fell for it instantly, creating a clone to help throw herself onto a balcony. "Not even close! You just watch and see how fast we'll finish this, sensei!" she roared, before running off the way she'd come.

Hatake threw a look in her direction, but didn't say anything. He smiled briefly at Sakura and Ino —she couldn't explain how she knew he was smiling, since most of his face was hidden, but it

 _felt_ like he was smiling—before taking off as well, probably to read his porn.

"You call your sensei by his last name?" Ino enquired in a curious voice. Sakura nodded. "That's weird. Anyway, at least my team doesn't have Naruto in it. She has to be a real nightmare. How do you cope?"

Sakura flushed angrily and suddenly, before saying in a clipped tone, "Naruto isn't that bad. She's not the sharpest kunai in the pouch, but you shouldn't talk about her like that."

"Okay, calm down," her friend replied, startled at her coldness. "I didn't mean to make you mad. But if I remember correctly, we used to make fun of her a lot, and _you_ were perfectly fine with it at the time. What changed?"

Sakura hesitated. "I just… I guess I didn't really know her then." She didn't like being reminded of how awful she had been to her teammate, even without said teammate's knowledge. She knew what it felt like to be the object of petty insults and bullying, how terrible and lonely it was. The more she thought about her days at the Academy, the less she understood how she could have been so stupid.

Naruto was her partner. They would have to rely on each other in the future, maybe even save each other's life. If she ever discovered what Sakura, Ino and the other girls in their year had said about her, she would be terribly hurt. Hinata had once tried to stand up in her defense, but the Hyuuga heir's overwhelming shyness had won over. After that she'd stayed silent when the subject of their tomboy classmate arose, even if she always looked very unhappy. But she had been the only one. Sakura felt a deep sense of shame that she had ever partaken in such casual cruelty, especially since she was sure Naruto had never done the same to her or any of her peers.

It was strange, the way they had all disliked Naruto so much. Now that she really thought about it, she couldn't even find a good reason why. It was true that the girl had spent a lot of time with the boys, and that some of the girls in the class could have felt jealous about that. But Naruto didn't hang out with them the way these girls wanted to. She dressed like them, acted and talked like them, but she never tried to get _this_ kind of attention from them. Moreover, most of the girls had been obsessed with Sasuke at the time. The other boys seemed too immature and loud and stupid next to the Uchiha genius, his good genes and quiet presence.

They all just seemed to agree that Uzumaki Naruto was bad news. Sakura also knew that her parents disliked the girl, for whatever reason, and had told her to stay away from the 'troublemaker'. They had paled, and looked helplessly at each other, upon learning that Naruto was on her team.

She had been wondering about that a lot lately. Even Hatake-sensei seemed to have some deep-rooted dislike of Naruto that he had trouble hiding. He was cold to all of them, yes, joking around without meaning any of it, harsh in his criticism, refusing to use their names. But his relationship with Naruto was even more strained. He never talked to her directly if he could avoid it, and when he did, his voice was thin and controlled, as if he was having to restrain himself from yelling.

"Hey, Ino," she asked, forcing herself out of her musings, "Why do you dislike Naruto so much? Besides the fact that she's in Sasuke's team and you're not."

Ino hummed. She was standing up with her hands behind her neck, massaging her tense muscles slowly, as reluctant as Sakura to go back to the house and get more heavy boxes to carry around. "Probably because of all the pranks she pulls? Some of them are a real pain. She used to disrupt class a lot."

"Yeah, but she hasn't done anything since graduation." Or at least nothing on as big a scale as the things they had come to expect from her. "And she wasn't always a troublemaker. She didn't start bothering people until our last two years, remember?"

"I dunno," Ino shrugged. "I guess there's just something about her that annoys me. Daddy used to tell me that I shouldn't talk to her, so she probably did something really bad. He never said anything about the other kids."

 _This doesn't make any sense_ , Sakura thought. Had Naruto done something to warrantYamanaka-san's anger? Or her own parents'? A few weeks ago she would have believed it, but not anymore. This didn't fit the Naruto she had spent almost every day with for the past month. Naruto was a surprisingly shy person, once you got past the boasting and the overall brash demeanor. She talked very little about her private life, and didn't enjoy being asked personal questions—Sakura had learned this after seeing the girl shut down on herself when she'd asked her when her birthday was. She was loud, but respectful. Even her pranks had merely been bothersome, not dangerous or hurtful.

"Try to give her a chance, will you?" she mumbled, paying no heed to the surprised expression on Ino's face. She started walking towards the house again. With one last stretch and a disappointed sigh, Ino followed her. They still had a lot of things to move.

"Someone said something about food?" Chouji said when they arrived, opening his eyes sluggishly. Ino dumped her water on his face.

The following weeks went much the same way. She, Sasuke and Naruto took a lot of D-rank missions. They became somewhat expert at weeding huge gardens, catching lost pets and completing small building work. It wasn't very exciting, but it payed well enough for her. On Iruka-sensei's advice—she visited him sometimes, since he was still her favorite teacher—she opened a bank account under her own name, outside her parents' control, where she saved the money she earned. This didn't help her parents warm up to the idea of her becoming a shinobi, but it did prevent them from hindering her progress. Under Konoha's law, she was considered an adult. They needed to realize this.

In the morning, she met with Naruto for training. They had both accepted that Hatake-sensei didn't care much about _really_ teaching them anything, so they decided to help each other stay in shape. The katas and sparring took them about two hours every day. They probably weren't any good at it, since no one was there to correct their moves and Sakura herself had performed rather poorly in all her taijutsu classes, but at least they wouldn't lose their stamina. And it gave them something to do, a schedule to keep up with, which in Sakura's experience was always a good thing. Especially since Naruto didn't seem to have anything else to do with

her time.

They talked, too, a lot. Or at least Sakura did. Naruto was a very good listener: she was attentive, she never tried to redirect the conversation to herself, and she never judged, although she reacted vividly. Sakura had been surprised by this, at first, and taken immediate advantage of it. She could still remember Naruto's attempt to make them all get along when the teams had been announced, and how she had spent the next few hours babbling about everything she liked and disliked. How Naruto had never tried to interrupt her or say anything on her own. How, even now, the other girl seemed to remember what she had said very well. It took a long time for Sakura to understand that their relationship was way too one-sided. This led to her asking Naruto about her birthday, and the very awkward hour that had ensued.

The violence of Naruto's reaction to such an innocent question had been startling, to say the least. But she was an orphan, after all. Maybe she didn't know when she was born? It was unlikely, but it could happen. Maybe she wasn't even born in Konoha, and was one of those babies abandoned at the gates of an orphanage, like in fairytales. Maybe her parents had died on the day of her birth. Anyway, it was obviously a sensitive topic, and she didn't pry.

Little by little, Naruto came out of her shell. She told Sakura her favorite color (orange), her favorite meal (miso ramen), her favorite animal (frogs, of all things). She didn't know any movies, besides the ones they had seen at the Academy, so Sakura promised to show her some. Sakura learned that Naruto liked sunny days the best, that rain made her moody, that her secondary goal in life was to beat Sasuke in combat. Naruto took her to her favorite food stand on one memorable occasion, and she made the acquaintance of Ichiraku Teuchi and his daughter Ayame, who were long-time friends of her team mate and seemed delighted to meet her. Apparently, Naruto had talked about their team a lot.

Things weren't perfect, far from it. Sakura was very disappointed with her team, Naruto excepted. Hatake-sensei never taught them anything, showed up late on every meeting, and treated them with the same amount of respect he would a fly in his soup. Only Sasuke was granted the honor of being called by his name and given some tips on the rare days when they all trained together. Sakura only got a dry and somewhat skeptical 'Haruno', and Naruto was never called anything.

Eventually, things came to a standpoint, and she 'exploded'.

It had happened before, so she wasn't too surprised. Sakura was painfully aware that the appearance she cultivated was very different from how she felt. Her language, for once. She was always polite, even when she was mad. That was just how she had been raised. Her innermost thoughts, however, resembled Naruto's swear glossary far more than they did her father's cultured tones. She always tried her best to be as inconspicuous as possible in that respect. She wasn't a _boy_ , she didn't need to engage in vocal pissing contests to remind herself of her own worth. It was also good training as a shinobi, she reflected. Hiding your strength until the last possible moment was a fireproof plan. And the ability to verbally shit on an enemy until he or she lost their control was as good a tool as any.

She had had those 'explosions' since childhood. Since she had decided to become a kunoichi after reading the story of the great Sannin, actually. The life and accomplishments of Senju

Tsunade, inventor of a thousand antidotes, reformer of shinobi medicine, and overall grade A badass, had featured in many of her daydreams. She had very quickly decided that this was the kind of woman she wanted to become. Not a merchant's wife like her mother. Not a teacher or a store tenant. She wanted the recognition and the power, and she would get them.

Things didn't go quite as planned then. Her parents' opposition to her decision went to such heights that she had to request an audience with the Hokage. The old, kindly man had assured her that she was in her right and that no one could stop her from attending the Academy. It was free, so she wouldn't have to rely on anyone financially, should her family disown her. He had also made it clear to her mom and dad that as Konoha citizens, they were subjected to shinobi law. And shinobi law stated that while no one could be forced to become a shinobi, no one could be prevented from becoming one either, as long as they had the required skills and dedication.

Oh, how grown-up she had felt back then, hearing the Hokage agree with her. How wonderful to see her parents' stupidity brought to light in front the village head! She had barely contained her glee.

Then the Academy started, and her ambitions suffered greatly. She hadn't anticipated how _hard_ it would be. She was an easy study, always somewhat of a bookworm, and achieved excellent grades in most of her classes, but the difficulty lay elsewhere. As the first weeks passed, slow and lonely, she came to realize that her dreams were shared by almost every student. Every girl wanted to grow up to be Senju Tsunade. Every boy looked in envy at the Fourth's face carved into the mountain, drooling at the idea of becoming the next hero, the next never-forgot tragedy.

The competition was rough. She got singled out at first, as one of the rare students coming from civilian families. The fight to become friends with the clan kids was violent. Small shinobi families were trying to get into the clans' good graces through their children, encouraging them to form the right friendships, to have the best entourage. The power-play at work in these classrooms was ridiculous, and Sakura started 'exploding'.

It never happened in front of the other kids or teachers, of course. She would never let it. But once she came home, little Sakura became a monster. She would scream, and swear, and drive her parents to the very end of their patience. She would stomp on the floor and slam the doors shut until they broke. She would make her mother cry and her father turn red as a tomato, and feel no regret for it. Thinking back, she knew that she had probably worried them a lot. They had spent a lot of time huddled together, trying to comfort themselves when she refused to eat and to sleep. Unable to do anything without taking the risk of becoming outlaws.

Slowly, painstakingly, she managed to reduce these excesses of violence. Ino's friendship helped her strengthen her resolve. She blocked out the extra noise and focused on her studies. So what if they all wanted the same thing, and she wasn't so special after all? She was still the best. She knew it, and she would make them see it. It was only a matter of time.

It was a wonder Sasuke managed to distract her at all during that time. If she was being completely honest with herself, her crush on the boy probably had more to do with the jealousy she had felt when he started getting all of Ino's attention. He was pretty, that was a given.

Talented, mysterious. His tragic life appealed to a lot of her classmates in a twisted way. But she wouldn't have found him nearly as attractive as she did then if 'getting Sasuke' hadn't become her only way to keep _some_ sort of a bond with her best friend.

So the 'Sakura-explosions' dwindled, to her family's relief. She regained her stability before her first year at the Academy was over. But they never disappeared completely. And, although she now knew how to tell when one was coming and how to work it out of her system by throwing weapons at targets until her arms ached, she was certain that one day someone would be at the wrong end of one again.

She just never would have expected it to be her own teacher.

It began on a fairly ordinary day, almost two months into their time as a team. The weather had settled firmly into fall rains and chilly breezes. The trees had finished shedding their foliage a few days prior, so there was nothing to protect them from the washed out light of the day, blinding in its own right, even without the sun. She had met with Naruto earlier and trained, maybe throwing harsher punches than usual, but the other girl hadn't commented on it. Sakura then invited her for breakfast before they regrouped with the rest of their team.

Sasuke was already waiting for them at the bridge where they always met, sitting by himself and playing with a kunai. He didn't say anything when he saw them arrive, not that they had expected him to. Yet Sakura found herself hard-pressed not to call him on it. For God's sake, they had never done anything to deserve the silent treatment he gave them. If anything, _they_ should be ignoring him.

She proceeded to do just that, turning to Naruto and chatting about nonsensical things—the girl loved to hear about her neighborhood's love and hate affairs, for some reason—while they waited for Hatake to show up. The man usually took more than an hour to make his presence known, but the three of them were always on time. He could be waiting for them to slip, after all, and nothing said he wasn't watching them every time he did this. Sakura thought it unlikely, though. It pained her to admit it, but Hatake-sensei was probably just that lazy.

"Hello, kids," the man said when he appeared an hour and a half later. He was disgustingly chipper for an asswipe, she decided, glaring a hole into his face. "Now whatever shall we do today?" He looked at the papers he was holding, sorting through them quickly. "Our dearest Tora-chan has escaped once more. The daimyo's wife has upped the price since it's the second time this week. Or you could help with the paint job on the new Academy building, but it's three-stories high, so I'm guessing you're all too lazy for that. There are fences to be built around the Hokage's kitchen garden-"

"Why can't we get something interesting for once?" Sasuke complained, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah," Naruto agreed, and this in itself was proof that she was really desperate for more action. "All we ever do is D-rank missions! And I get that they're useful and we all need to do our part, but one C-rank won't kill us, right?"

"Well, Sasuke," Hatake answered, "as much as I'd like to grant you all one day of freedom from these dreadfully boring assignments, I'm not sure everyone here is at your level."

Naruto's face reddened profusely. Sakura buried her nails into her palms, so mad was she at the display. _Why_ was Hatake-sensei so horrible to them? Was it a gender thing? Ino often ranted about sexism, and how misogynistic the shinobi world as a whole was. She had been incensed all her life at the 'girl lessons' they were taught, the flower arrangements and seduction tips and behavior courses, even as she attended them all dutifully. And while Sakura agreed with her in a very abstract, this-doesn't-really-concern-me way, she had never thought she would be subjected to this kind of casual forgetfulness.

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" she demanded to know, voice shaking slightly.

Silence answered her. She hadn't noticed that Hatake was already explaining the day's mission to them, having apparently considered the discussion closed.

"Excuse me?" he said politely, yet she could hear the warning in his tone.

Well, if it was conflict he was looking for, he would find it.

"I said, what the hell is that supposed to mean?" she repeated confidently, hands on her hips, back straight, looking him in the eye. "I'm am so goddamn _tired_ of your favoritism, Hatake-sensei. What is it that makes Sasuke inherently better than Naruto and I? What does he have that _we_ don't?"

"Besides the obvious? He is a serious student," the man replied coldly. "Unlike you, he gives me something to work with, and he doesn't slack outside of missions. His training regimen-"

"So you _have_ been training him," she cut him off, "while leaving us to fend for ourselves. Real nice, sensei. Tell me, were you actually sincere when you told us team work was the key to being a great shinobi, that those who abandoned their comrades were 'worse than trash', or was it all _bullshit_? Because I could swear I've been smelling the hypocrisy on you since fucking day one."

She heard a gasp. Naruto was watching her with wide eyes, and Sasuke was probably making a face worth a thousand pictures, but she refused to look away.

Hatake-sensei was very still. His bored expression hadn't changed, and it didn't even look like anything she had said had made an impact. But Sakura could feel cold sweat dripping down her back, making her shiver, and fright was at the edge of her mind, toying with her resolve. He was definitely disturbed by her words. This realization pushed her forward, made her open her mouth again.

"I've been training with Naruto every day since we became a team," she told him, lips trembling. He watched her, waiting for her to finish. "So maybe we're not Uchiha-level yet, maybe you… you think girls can't get anywhere or something, but we're _not_ slackers, and you don't have the right to blame us for our _subpar performance_ when _you're_ the one who's always categorically refused to train us!"

"You never asked," Hatake said icily.

Sakura pointed at Naruto, who yelped. " _Naruto_ asked you, oh, only about a hundred times. But since you seem to be deaf and blind when it comes to her, you never deigned giving her a proper answer."

"Sakura-" Naruto started.

" _Don't_ try to find excuses for him," she spat out. "I don't know what's going on between the two of you, and frankly I'm not sure I _want_ to know, but I thought being a shinobi meant being adult enough to set aside personal feelings. The very fact that you're doing your best to take the high road when he won't give you the time of the day tells me everything I need to know about how childish he is." She met Hatake's eye unflinchingly. "I know you're one of the best jounin of the village, so whatever it is that makes you such a terrible teacher must really be something. But that's no reason to treat us like that, and I expect at least an apology. Honestly, what is it gonna take for you to finally start taking us seriously?"

Her heart was beating very fast. A part of her somewhere was growing more and more horrified at the realization that she had basically insulted her own teacher and told him he was incompetent. _Why did I say that?_ it was crying mournfully. _Why did I overstep my boundaries_ _like that? He's my teacher, for fuck's sake! I just got mad that he said I was a bad student and I exploded like a child!_ But Naruto was looking at her with gratitude greater than she had everknown, her marked cheeks dimpling as she smiled, and she knew without a doubt that she had done the right thing, at least for her friend.

Hatake-sensei turned his head upwards. Sakura wondered fleetingly if she was going to be taken out of the team. She didn't _think_ anyone had the right to outright forbid her to be a shinobi, unless she committed a serious crime, but Hatake certainly had enough relations to make life extremely difficult for her.

Well. What would happen would happen. Regretting her words now would be pointless.

"You want me to take you seriously," he said, and his voice wasn't anything like his usual fake playful tones. "Alright. Come here."

"I- what?"

"I'm giving you ten minutes," he continued, eyeing her darkly. "You and I will spar. Hand-to-hand only, no ninjutsu or genjutsu allowed for either of us. If you manage to touch me even once during that time, I'll start training you personally. I'll teach you everything I know, including my clan secrets. How does that sound?"

 _This isn't real_ , she thought. No clan ever volunteered its secret so lightly. Clan members died toprotect them, spent their lives inventing techniques to make their own bodies destroy themselves so that no one could steal them from their corpses. She had read all about this before. Hatake-sensei didn't have any family left. He would never risk his inheritance unless he was a hundred percent sure he could beat her.

 _He's playing with me_ , she gathered, fury building up inside her chest and hot blood flooding hercheeks. _He doesn't think I can do it!_

"Fine," she muttered, and took a step towards him. "I just need to touch you, right? Not hit you or take anything from you. Easy peasy."

She could see Naruto moving, ready to interfere, but she held up a hand and shook her head. This was her fight. She had waited two months for the chance to make her mark, and now that she was handled an opportunity on a silver platter, she intended to seize it. Naruto faltered in her steps, a helpless look on her face.

Sakura turned towards Hatake. He hadn't taken his eye off her, or started reading his blasted book, but he didn't seem too concerned about her either. He was simply standing a few meters away from from, hands in his pockets, head slightly tilted. She smiled.

 _I'm gonna kick you in the_ balls, she thought savagely. And then she charged, fist extended.

He avoided her easily, taking a step to the side, but she had predicted it. She reacted as quickly as she could, remembering her sessions with Naruto and trying to be at least twice as good as she was then.

She rarely won against Naruto. The other girl was simply speaking a monster of energy: her stamina was insane, and oftentimes when they stopped to drink water and catch a breath, she was barely even sweating. But Sakura was better at controlling her own body, and she was intimately familiar with her strengths and weaknesses. She knew her limits.

This was the only way for her to get anywhere with her small chakra reserves. She couldn't use a lot of ninjutsu, and she didn't—yet—have the physical training and endurance to be any good at taijutsu. But she had control, and knowledge, and she could make do with both. She would hit Hatake if it was the last thing she did.

With half her mind busy forming a quick plan, she leaped, and fell, and kicked, trying her best to at least brush him. She failed time and time again, falling harshly on grass and stone, her hands and feet finding only air where the man had been only a second ago. It was like he could read her mind and _see_ where she would land before she was conscious of it.

She didn't let herself despair. She had ten minutes, and she intended to use every single one them to try and tire him out. He was part of Konoha's elite, she reminded herself, thinking back to the research she had done on him after the bell test. It was only natural that he would be proficient in taijutsu. She would have expected him to be a little more awkward in hand-to-hand; it must be hard for him to measure distances with one eye missing. But if this had ever been a weakness of his, he had obviously trained himself out of it. His moves, simples as they were since he was only avoiding her and not trying to counter anything, were flawless.

Five minutes into the spar, she had him cornered against a rock, well away from where the fight had begun. He seemed to realize this at the same time.

 _Gotcha_ , she thought triumphantly. In a deliberately clumsy move, she jumped in his direction. Asshe expected, he stepped to the side, same as he had when she'd first ran at him. Only this time, Sakura fell forward hands-first. Immediately, she channelled chakra into her palms to make them stick to the ground, and she used her own momentum to make her right foot spin in

his direction, focusing as much chakra into its sole as she could while still maintaining herself upright. Smiling wickedly when she saw his eyes widen in shock, she threw everything she had into the kick.

She felt her leg hit something solid, and heard the sound of stone cracking and rocks tumbling down. Dust flew into her face, making her cough and lose her balance. She fell on her back, rasping onto the grass and trying to catch her breath before she choked. She turned her head to look at the place of the impact.

The rock she had pushed Hatake towards was cracked in the middle. An indentation at least two inches deep in the shape of her foot had deformed the stone. Hatake was standing on top of it. His eyes, fixed on her, held no trace of the surprise and fear she had glimpsed in them during her last assault.

"Time out," he declared.

"What…?" she mumbled, dazed. Then his words connected. "No!" she yelled, trying to get up, but her legs were too weak to support her. "I still have at least four minutes left!"

She couldn't have used all her time. She _couldn't_ , she was sure of it. Or had she? She had never been this focused on a fight before. Could she have lost track of the clock?

Her teacher landed swiftly next to her head, and looked down at her. "Big mouth, heh?" he said flatly, before turning his back on her and walking away.

Sakura lied on the ground for several minutes, shocked into silence. She barely registered Naruto's presence at her side, or Sasuke sitting down next to them, fidgeting uneasily. She could only glare at the sky, the stupid grey-white sky, and wallow in her shame.

 _I couldn't even touch him_ , she thought. Tears were gathering in her eyes, blurring the world,eventually overflowing onto her temples and hair. She sniffed miserably, trying to hold back the sobs fighting to escape her. When she finally let go, it was with an unattractive snort and a yell. She pushed face head into the dirt to smother as much of the outburst as she could, trying to preserve the last of her dignity, as fat tears rolled over her face and dripped onto the grass.

"Hatake-sensei is not training me," Sasuke said suddenly, and Naruto let out a small, "yeah, _right,_ " at his face, scowling. He flushed. "It's true!" he protested, tearing his eyes away fromNaruto and towards where Sakura still lay, defeated, drowning in her shame. "He asked how I was training, but he never oversaw any of it. He just let me take care of it on my own, just like you two."

Sakura snarled. "Why are you only saying this _now_?"

"I didn't know you thought he was training me exclusively!" he retorted, frowning at her.

"Jerk," she hiccuped. Her tears weren't stopping yet, but at least she wasn't sobbing anymore.

"Anyway, Sakura-chan…" Naruto said hesitantly. She was playing with a blade of grass, avoiding her eyes and slouching slightly. "Thanks. For what you said earlier," she finished, red-

faced. "It means a lot to me."

This only made her cry harder. "You two are so fucking useless," she complained loudly, making them chuckle awkwardly.

"I think I like you better when you're like that," Naruto said teasingly. Sasuke snorted in laughter, and Sakura suggested they both went and fucked themselves.

"That fight was actually pretty impressive," Sasuke said after a while. "That last kick… that was a very nice move. How did you break the rock?"

It was the first time they had been like that. It was nice, she decided. To be able to sit down and spend time with two other people without it being uncomfortable. Or without Sasuke trying to antagonize them. In the light of his explanation that Hatake _hadn't_ been favoring him, or at least not when they weren't there to see him, she found herself revising her judgement of the boy once again.

He was rude, certainly, in that I-am-so-much-better-you, off-handed way of his. He targeted their insecurities, calling Naruto 'dead last' or 'buffoon' and ignoring Sakura as much as he could, knowing how much she had tried to get his attention for years. He never talked to them, never offered advice when he knew they had trouble understanding or doing something he was good at. But Sakura couldn't honestly say that she had been nice to him either. She had taken his calling her and Naruto 'hindrances' during the bell test very much to heart, and never really forgiven him. She had tried engaging him in conversation during their first week as a team, but quickly given up, and reverted to talking to Naruto exclusively.

Yet here Sasuke was, apparently trying to comfort her in his own, clumsy way. And Sakura was forced to recognize the fact that, out of them all, she was the least socially awkward. Sasuke was _shy_ , and trying to cover it by being as offensive as he could. The thought made her laugh, and laugh, and laugh, until the other two were left staring helplessly at each other.

What a team they made.

x

Sasuke woke up to someone pounding loudly at his door, calling his name. Groaning, he dug his arm out of his blankets and threw it in the direction of his nightstand, knocking something off on the way. The sound of breaking class finished tearing him out of his slumber, and he grabbed his clock. It was almost eleven o'clock.

 _Shit_ , he thought. He tried to jump to his feet, but his head started aching and dizzinessovercame him, making him nauseous. Grabbing the nearest chair, he leaned over, trying to calm his beating and put his stomach back where it belonged. There were glass shards all over the carpet, from the empty bottle he had just broken, and yeah, he _wasn't_ thinking about how much of a pain cleaning it up would be. He dragged his feet to the bathroom and splashed water on his face. A look in the mirror made him cringe. His eyes were bloodshot, his face a sickly yellow-white.

He threw his clothes on haphazardly. They were creased all over, but since he hadn't trained the day before, they were still relatively fresh. They would do.

"Sa-su-keeee-"

Taking a deep breath, he opened the door, and almost received Naruto's fist in his face. It wouldn't be the first time, but he wasn't sure he was ready for that kind of violence at the moment.

The girl stumbled for a second, then scowled at him. "What the fuck are you doing? We were supposed to meet at the bridge like two hours ago. Sakura-chan's worried the end of the world's coming."

"Shut up," he answered feebly, massaging his temples. He shivered as cold wind hit his bare legs and feet, and put his shoes on carefully, trying not to move too suddenly.

"Are you…" Naruto was peering at his face. Then her lips spread into a wide grin, and Sasuke resisted the urge to groan. "Holy shit," she laughed. "Are you _hungover_?"

Thankfully, Sasuke was too ill to blush or truly feel embarrassed. He pushed past her with a grunt and closed his door behind him, gritting his teeth at the sharp sound it made. Naruto was still laughing, holding her ribs and obviously not inclined to stop or lower her voice, so he resolved to ignore her for the day.

The trip to the bridge was relatively quiet, despite Naruto's mocking snorts every time something made him flinch, be it a burst of wind or the sound of a child's high-pitched voice. He chose to walk rather than jump from roof to roof, not willing to risk puking on his teammate. As satisfying as the idea sounded, he didn't relish the thought of suffering Sakura's wrath.

Sakura was waiting for them with a book open and a mostly eaten lunch spread out around her. She had a coat on. Konoha was going through a bout of very cold weather, despite the complete lack of snow. Frost-covered grass cracked under his feet. The ponds were frozen through, and even the river had dwindled into a small stream, due to the fact that much of its source water had changed into ice overnight.

"Finally." Sakura snapped her book shut before getting back on her feet. She smiled at them, but then noticed Naruto's unfaltering smirk and, probably, Sasuke's face. "What's wrong with you?" she asked immediately, worry tinting her voice.

"Dear Sasuke is suffering from a bad case of _I shouldn't have drunk so much_ ," Naruto answered immediately, taking her place atop the bridge barrier. Sasuke dearly hoped to see her fall, but then again her cries of outright might be too loud to be worth it.

"You've been drinking? Why?" Sakura asked. Her expression was a mix of disapproval and concern.

His mood darkened immediately. "None of your business," he mumbled, before sitting down on the side of the road. Fortunately, Sakura was a tad more tactful than Naruto, and she didn't try

to get more out of him.

Barely a minute later, Hatake appeared. It was so strange to see him arrive so soon after getting into place himself that Sasuke was almost persuaded the man standing in front of them was someone else using a henge. It took him almost thirty seconds to remember that _he_ had been late as well.

"Sasuke's hungover!" Naruto called immediately, because she was annoying like that.

Predictably, Hatake didn't acknowledge her. Sasuke wondered why the girl even bothered trying to talk to him. He would have given up long ago, if someone treated him the same way. The man's only visible eye did take a quick glance at Sasuke's prone form and sickly pallor. However, he didn't seem to find it worth commenting on.

"Guess who escaped from the house again," he told them gleefully, waving a picture of Tora at them. Sakura and Naruto's moans of despair could probably be heard from the other side of the village.

The day wet on ordinarily. Sasuke felt bad for missing their collective training session in the morning—he had started joining the girls after what had become known as the Epic Sakura Breakdown Episode curtesy of Naruto—but his mind was plagued by much darker thoughts, and he couldn't find it in himself to bother apologizing. Not today.

He helped as much as could in catching the damn cat, but he was sluggish and tired, and the girls soon relegated him to minding the bait. Usually, Hatake would have nagged at him endlessly for slacking during a mission, even one as redundant and boring as this one, but the man left him in peace for once. He probably knew what today meant to him, Sasuke reflected.

He had never tried dealing with his family's death by drinking before. The four precedent anniversaries had been spent choking on his tears and his rage, throwing kunai at trees or practicing his taijutsu until his hands bled. Then, he could imagine the targets he was punching into a bloody pulp was Itachi's face.

He had wanted to change tactics this year. Since he was legally an adult, he had the right to buy alcohol. Generally, bar tenants still refused serve alcohol to young shinobi, or at least those who looked like their bodies hadn't finished growing. But Sasuke had flashed the Uchiha emblem, and threatened to call the Hokage, and the man had relented. Perhaps he had looked how he felt then, like a dead body warmed over and ripped back to life, and that was why the barman hadn't made more of a fuss.

He had hoped the sake would numb him enough that he would stop caring, stop remembering that night. He had been wrong. All the alcohol did was slow him down and take away his restraint. He couldn't remember everything, but one thing was sure: the pit in his stomach was as full of pain and hatred as ever. The only difference was the nausea and the headache, and he promised himself he wouldn't make that mistake again.

He flinched violently when a shadow covered him. He jumped to his feet and was about to throw a shuriken, when he realized that it was Naruto standing before him, covered in fading

cuts and holding a disgruntled cat in her arms.

"You okay?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

He exhaled slowly. With a flick of the wrist, he put the shuriken back in his thigh pouch, and took a petty enjoyment out of seeing envy flicker over the girl's face.

"Growing soft on me, Uzumaki?" he drawled.

She growled, showing her teeth in a surprisingly animalistic way. She did that sometimes, landing on all fours or being ridiculously happy to just bask in the sun or generally acting like an over-spoiled house cat. With Tora in her arms, she was a vision. "See if I care!" she exclaimed, throwing the fur ball at him and walking away with her chin up. Strangely, the encounter left him feeling a little better than he had a minute ago.

Footsteps echoed behind him. " _Are_ you okay?" Hatake asked. There was no concern in his voice. There never was. Sasuke had never met someone as difficult to pinpoint as his teacher, except Itachi, and that thought didn't help him warm up to the man.

"Why do you hate Naruto so much?" he replied, all traces of humor gone.

The man grunted and flicked out of view.

 _Good riddance_ , Sasuke thought. This little method for getting rid of their instructor had beenimplemented by Sakura. It was obvious, now that he was trying to _mingle_ a little more with the girls he'd been teamed with, that something was up between Hatake and their blond-haired teammate. Neither of them knew what, and they weren't trying to pry, not really, but it was useful when you knew how uncomfortable with the topic the man was. All they had to do was ask 'why do you hate her?' and he took off. Of course, they never did it in Naruto's presence. Sasuke would have, but Sakura was monstrously protective of the girl's feelings, and had threatened to have his balls removed if he ever tried.

They had some weird relationships.

Once Tora had been delivered safely to the Hokage tower, Sasuke started walking home, intent on spending the rest of the day brooding in his bedroom and thinking of the past, but Hatake's voice stopped him.

"I need you all to pack for a three-week mission," he said. "We'll be going tomorrow."

There was a silence. Then—he covered his ears as fast as he could—Naruto screamed in joy, high-fiving Sakura and giving the other girl a hug, blushing profusely at the same time.

"Yeah, yeah," Hatake continued, clearly bored with the display. "It's only a C-rank, thought. No need to get so worked up. The only difference will be that we'll be in a different place and we'll have to sleep in tents."

"What are we going to do?" Sasuke asked tiredly, trying uselessly to block the noise Naruto was making. God, the girl could wake up a mountain with those lungs.

"We're accompanying a carpenter to the Land of Waves and seeing to his protection until he finishes building a bridge there. Then we'll come home. Normally the Hokage wouldn't waste anyone on this, but there's a been an increase in brigandry between here and Waves."

Sasuke nodded. Getting out of Konoha for a few weeks was probably a good idea, all things considered. He would never have a moment alone, but at least he wouldn't be tempted to go back to the Uchiha compound to relive his nightmares. The perspective of spending three weeks with Sakura and Naruto wasn't so terrible, as well.

They finally parted ways. Sakura had politely invited him to join her and Naruto for the afternoon

— despite the other girl muttering under her breath about 'damn lightweights'—but he had declined. He had had as much company as he could bear for the day. He needed some alone time before he had to live in close quarters with his team. Plus, he had some tombs to visit, and he doubted that they would appreciate being dragged into his personal hell.

The cemetery was deserted as always. Few people bothered coming here, apart from those who had recently lost someone they loved. Sasuke himself only came here once a year, on the anniversary of his clan's death ( _massacre, slaughter, execution, 'death' was too kind a word to_ _describe what Itachi had done_ ). He sat in front of his parents' graves and let the anger come tohim, swallow him, until he was sure again what his goal in life truly was.

He was an avenger. He was born to find his clan's murderer and exact God's justice upon him. As wrong as Itachi had been, as much as he had lied to him, he was right about that. His words, on that fateful night, had been nothing but the truth.

He could still visualize the scene if he closed his eyes. The smell of blood, the screams outside dying out one after the other. The _thud_ that Fugaku and Mikoto's bodies had made when they hit the floor. The wheezing sound of Itachi's steel blade, reflecting his own horrified gaze, dripping with his family's blood. The Mangekyou Sharingan piercing him, gauging his worth and finding him lacking. A shudder ran through him. Tears, familiar and hot, ran down his cheeks.

He could never repress the tears.

Sasuke stayed in the graveyard for a very long time this year. Much longer than he usually did. Maybe it was an aftereffect of the alcohol, maybe it was because he just felt like this year was different from the others. Maybe because he was one step closer to catching up to Itachi, and the thought sent a terrifying mixture of adrenaline and fear through his body. Maybe… maybe because for the first time since he had become an orphan, there was something on his mind other than revenge.

It hadn't been easy, letting the girls get close to him. The fact that they were girls had very little to do with it. He had been disappointed at first when he had learned that he was going to be the only boy on the team, but only because he had expected his teammates to stop at nothing to get his attention, the way all the girls at the Academy did. He couldn't have been more wrong, though. In fact, Sakura and Naruto were much more engrossed in each other than they ever were in him. Even Sakura, who had sworn for a long time that she would make him fall for her, seemed to have completely dropped the air headed act in favor of becoming the best kunoichi she could, under the circumstances.

As for Naruto… she had never been of much interest to him, that was true. The vague memories he had of her during their time under Iruka's tutelage were those of a loudmouthed brat with no talent, who enjoyed being annoying and despised being ignored. She was still all of this, even if she had stopped pulling pranks. But she was hardworking, just as much as Sakura and himself, and she did her part of the job without fault. She also handled their teacher's dislike with good grace. Something that, for reasons he couldn't explain, made him more angry than anything.

He hadn't realized all of this at first. He was so busy trying to catch Hatake's attention, to make the man train him and help him become stronger, that he had largely ignored his teammates. They had been dead weight in his mind. Something he could afford to lose, as long as he kept improving. He hadn't thought anything of the way Hatake treated him, and how different it was from how he treated _them_. Not until the Sakura Breakdown. Not until a pink-haired genin girl had the guts to stand up and make him look.

He still wasn't completely at ease with them. He avoided Sakura's invitations and only responded to Naruto's banter. Their concern, their occasional smiles, the possibility they represented for friendship, were still too much for him at the moment. He was so used to loneliness, to the easy pain of it, that he was afraid of leaving it behind. This slow burning was better than the gut-wrenching pain of losing someone important.

Sasuke didn't want to lose anyone important ever again. Therefore, he didn't _want_ to have anyone important ever again.

It was probably because he was thinking about her that he didn't immediately recognize Naruto, sitting on top of a memorial stone and looking at the purpling sky pensively.

"What are you doing here?" he asked her, perhaps more harshly than was necessary.

She jumped a little, and turned to look at him with a puzzled expression. "Bastard," she acknowledged, looking around her as if expecting someone to jump out of the shadows and yell 'surprise!'

No one appeared, and she let herself drop off the stone, landing on her feet and wiping imaginary dust from her pants.

"Well, what are _you_ doing here, Sasuke?" She was still wearing that strangely guilty expression. As if she had been caught red-handed doing something she shouldn't.

"What do people in cemeteries do, moron?" he replied dryly. Her sudden embarrassed flush was highly rewarding.

"Oh." Her voice was small. "Were you, um, visiting someone?"

She winced immediately. Even for her, that was straight-forward. She must not have thought her words through. Seeing all of this and more on her face, Sasuke decided to take her out of her misery.

"I was visiting my parents," he said, surprising himself. He wasn't usually one to share stuff like that. Naruto's expression softened into something painfully similar to pity, and he averted his eyes. He blamed his hangover for his strange reactions. "What about you? Did you ditch Sakura?"

She let out a strained laugh. "I just like coming here. It's quiet. And no, I didn't abandon Sakura-chan. She had to come home early and pack, is all."

"The gates are closed at this hour," he pointed out. The sun had set a while ago. The sky was a deep purple, not yet black-blue, but already pinpricked with stars. Naruto avoided his gaze. "The gatekeeper knows me, so he leaves me alone when I come, but _you_ don't have any family here, do you?"

He knew his words were cold. But he was miserable, and he missed his mom, and he was more relieved to see Naruto's idiotic face than he would ever admit. He didn't know what to do with all of this. Feelings had never been his forte, not since that night. Sometimes he wondered how a happy Sasuke would have grown, surrounded by his loving family, but his musings never went far. It was better to be bitter and cold than to try to be happy and be met with the sting of heartbreak and mourning day after day.

Naruto was biting her lips, crossing and uncrossing her fingers. "I just- it's stupid. You're going to make fun of me," she accused.

"Not unless you're planning to desecrate someone's grave," he replied.

She bristled, obviously offended by his accusations. "I wouldn't do something like that!"

"You did paint over the Hokage monument once."

"That was different," she huffed, looking at him like he'd lost his mind. "They're just very big rocks. I wouldn't- I wouldn't paint on someone's grave, or damage it, or whatever. That's not correct."

She sank into a sullen silence. Sasuke thought about her words, but found that he didn't doubt her. Naruto was not a bad person. She was annoying and extremely slow sometimes, but she wouldn't hurt someone deliberately.

"So what are you doing, then?" he asked again, peering at her curiously. "Or _do_ you have family here?"

He didn't think so. There was no Uzumaki family that he knew of, and he was almost sure that the girl herself didn't know her parents. She didn't act like someone who knew where they belonged.

Still blushing, she walked up to the stone she'd been sitting on and pointed at one of the names etched onto its eroded surface. It was barely legible, but if he squinted, he could read 'Uzumaki Mito'. Time and weather had made the letters uneven, some almost completely faded into smooth stone. Sasuke looked up and at Naruto's embarrassed face.

"Is that your mom?" he said softly.

Naruto shook her head. "Look at the dates. She died way before I was born."

"Then who is it?"

His teammate kicked a piece of gravel away before sitting down. He followed her hesitantly, crossing his legs.

"I dunno," Naruto finally answered. "I found her back when I was still asking everyone who my parents were. Since no one knows, even the old man Hokage, I just started looking at all the tombstones here, and that's how I found her."

Sasuke nodded. He had never really thought about Naruto in that light before. But of course the girl would want to know about her family. He couldn't help thinking that despite the fact that they were both orphans, their situations couldn't have been more different.

"I come here sometimes. I don't bother anyone. This memorial stone must be very old, because no one visits it anymore." She embraced her knees and let her chip rest on top of them, looking at nothing. "Like I told you, it's stupid."

 _It's not_ , Sasuke thought. He was intimately familiar with the feeling visiting his family's gravesgave him. The emptiness and the regret, but also the vague, almost imperceptible feeling that he still had a connection with them. Their ashes were buried there, and their names carved into solid rock. Even if their lives had been taken away from them, they wouldn't be forgotten. Naruto must be experiencing something similar at the sight of the time-weary name.

"She was a shinobi, in any case," Sasuke offered. "These stones only celebrate the ninja who lost their lives in the line of duty. Looks like you were meant to be a kunoichi after all, against all evidence to the contrary."

Naruto smiled at him brightly, before catching on to his last words. "Hey! What the hell is that supposed to mean, 'all evidence to the contrary'?"

"Do you want to know what I meant, or do you just not understand what the words mean?"

He avoided her punch easily. They grappled for a while, kicking at each other without meaning it, trying to push the other to the ground and then make a run for it. They calmed down quickly, though. They were still in a graveyard, and this wasn't really appropriate behavior.

"Are you excited for tomorrow?" Naruto asked when they finally started walking towards the exit. It was very dark now, no longer the dusk twilight they had met in. The gatekeeper glared at Naruto when he saw them pass, but neither of them paid him any heed.

"Not really. It's just a C-rank mission. Like Hatake said, it's probably going to be just as boring as any D-rank."

"Yeah, but getting to spend time outside of Konoha, I mean."

Sasuke hummed thoughtfully. "I guess. I didn't really think about it. What's the land of Waves like, anyway?"

"Fuck if I know."

They went the rest of the way in silence. Eventually, Sasuke realized that Naruto had accompanied him all the way to his apartment and never said a word about it. Feeling suddenly awkward, he turned towards her, meeting her eyes.

"Er…" He didn't know what to say. Thanks? Let's never do that again? "See you tomorrow?"

She smiled wickedly. "Don't make me wake you up again, bastard."

"I'm not going to drink again, moron," he replied, annoyed, but she was already walking away, not listening anymore. _What a drag,_ he thought without heat. He toed off his shoes, not bothering with tidying them up. His coat ended up carelessly thrown onto the couch, while Sasuke put the kettle on and sagged into a kitchen chair.

By the time his tea was ready, he was so deep into his thought that he almost forgot it. He started packing for three weeks, taking only what was necessary. He was done long before his usual sleeping time. Realizing he had spent five minutes standing up in the middle of his living-room, doing absolutely nothing, he snorted and sat down.

He was at a loss. Usually by this time he would be boiling with hatred, seeing Itachi's face everywhere, forcing himself not to run out of the village and try to find him now. He knew he wasn't strong enough yet. But he was feeling none of this at the moment.

He was curiously at peace with himself. His encounter with Naruto had been very strange and awkward, but also indubitably nice. He _liked_ the other girl, he realized. He should hate her. He didn't want _friends_ , and especially not one whose incompetence could get herself and others killed anytime. But Naruto was so much more than just the sum of her flaws. She was weird, she could go from being entirely pathetic during practice to pulling off moves even he couldn't see coming. She was clumsy and slow, but she packed quite a punch. She wasted chakra like air and yet she never seemed to lose her stamina. And then there was the issue of Hatake's dislike of her. A dislike that had never seemed to surprise or even hurt her. She simply shrugged it off and kept trying.

She greeted the man every day without fault. She answered his questions and gave her reports, no matter that he never talked to her. She listened when he talked. There was an air of 'well, what can you do about it' around her that baffled both Sasuke and Sakura. It was obvious to them that she knew the reason behind that dislike. Sasuke never would have pegged Naruto as someone who knew how to keep secrets, but obviously, she could. And this didn't look like one she was willing to share.

Seeing her today had been upsetting. Talking to her, discovering that part of her—the longing for a family, for something to explain her being born—had put his mind at ease. Yes, they were different. No, it wasn't necessarily a bad thing

He didn't know what to make of all this. He didn't know how to act around her in the future. He wasn't embarrassed, exactly; he hadn't done anything wrong, and she hadn't looked like she wanted to mock him for what little he had admitted. If anything, her reasons for visiting the Konoha cemetery were far more laughable than his. But he felt uneasy. Vulnerable. He had exposed something of himself that he hadn't been ready to, and now he couldn't take it back.

His thoughts plagued him all night. He trashed and turned between his sheet, kicking his blankets away and then dragging them back over his body, shivering. He was still thinking about it when he ate, and when he left home, and on the way to the village gates.

Until the others arrived, and Sakura started making an inventory of everything they had chosen to bring.

"You are so stupid," he groaned at Naruto, watching her face twitch in irritation.

"Shut up, Sasuke," Sakura replied, even as she started scolding their teammate herself. He wanted to point out her hypocrisy, but the argument that would ensue wasn't worth the effort. Sakura loved mothering Naruto, and didn't appreciate his butting into the conversation. It made the both of them look like divorced parents arguing about who got to keep the child.

As they should have foreseen, the youngest member of their team—he didn't actually know if she was younger than them, as he had no idea when she'd been born, but it was just how she appeared—hadn't packed anything useful. Only instant noodles and her sleeping accommodations, as well as some extra shuriken.

"How do you expect to live off those?" Sakura was saying, one hand rubbing her forehead. "We don't even have anything to cook those with."

Naruto looked at Sasuke expectantly. He narrowed his eyes at her and snapped, "I'm not sharing my food with you."

"Figured you'd be a selfish asshole about food too," she mumbled, flipping him off.

Hatake chose this moment to appear. "Good morning, oh bright and hopeful youth of Konoha," he greeted them, before gesturing to the man standing beside him. "This is Tazuna. He's the one we'll be protecting during this mission. Kids, say hello."

Sasuke looked at the man critically, noticing his uneven gait and the faint smell of alcohol surrounding him. He didn't say anything, and neither did Sakura.

Naruto, however, was not so subtle. "I thought you'd be more impressive," she commented, churning her nose at the smell. "Ugh, sake."

The man, Tazuna, turned to Hatake. "I requested shinobi," he said, pointing vaguely in their direction. "Not _kids_."

"You payed for a C-rank mission," Hatake replied evenly, "these kids are perfectly capable of handling it."

Naruto, who had been about to yell something rude, paused visibly. Sasuke himself had to refrain from gaping at the man. _Did he just_ praise _us?_

"Whatever," Tazuna said, taking out a bottle of clear liquid and drinking directly from it. His cheeks reddened immediately. A pungent smell filled the area, giving Sasuke violent flashbacks of the previous morning's hangover. In the background, Naruto made a disgusted moan.

Hatake frowned, but didn't comment. "That's enough chit-chat for the moment," he told them. "The Land of Waves is two days away from Konoha. We can be there by tomorrow night if we walk fast enough. Tazuna-san, we'll take turns helping you with the cart. That'll leave far enough time for gossip-sharing."

Even though they didn't expect any trouble on the road—the Konoha headbands should be enough to deter any thief from trying to take them on—Hatake put them up on a rotation. They would travel by day only, and the genin would switch every three hours to pull the cart full of wood that Tazuna was taking back to his city. Naruto protested that Hatake was leaving them all the work again. Sakura interjected as well. Hatake told them to stuff it and deal, just not in so many words.

"Let's go, then," he finished, and the three genin took their first steps outside the village gates.

All in all, it was very dull. Having grown in the Hidden Leaf village, Sasuke was already sick of trees, and that was all there was to see. Trees, and the occasional rabbit jumping out of their path. He was the first to pull the carriage, which was surprisingly light despite the wooden planks piled up on it. Tazuna was walking in tense silence, taking sips out of whatever was in that damn bottle when he thought he was too sober. Sakura was chatting amiably with Naruto, and Hatake had taken the rear. The jounin was reading his book as usual, not showing any signs that he was watching his steps. He didn't have the decency to stumble even once, as he was avoiding every wayward root flawlessly. Sasuke resolved to observe him very closely once his turn with the cart was up. He was certain that there was some kind of chakra trick involved.

Despite the relatively easy pace, Sasuke was tired by the time Sakura was to relieve him. Naruto promptly proposed to have one of her clones do the job for her, and Sakura accepted good-naturedly.

"Why didn't you have one of those replace _me_?" Sasuke demanded, affronted.

"Well, you have to be useful for _something_ , don't you," the girl retorted. He wanted to wipe the smugness right off her damned face, but he felt sweaty and gross and not in the mood, so he grunted at her instead. She seemed to find this absolutely hilarious. Next to him, Tazuna paled until he looked like a ghost.

Sasuke got his revenge six hours later when they settled for the night and Naruto finally dispersed her clone. She immediately dropped the pike she had been holding and fell to her knees.

"Yeah, that's backlash for you," Hatake said, closing his book.

Sakura, who was all over Naruto in a heartbeat, was the first to get it. "Why did you never tell me you get your clones' memories when they disappear?" she asked with worry in her voice.

"Huh." Naruto blinked. "I never noticed."

Sasuke wanted to punch her in the face. Behind him, he could swear he heard Hatake groan loudly, but when he turned around, the man was seemingly engrossed in his task.

They took turns watching over the camp, too. Since Naruto exhausted herself out of sheer stupidity, Sakura took first watch. Sasuke slept badly. He was sharing his tent with Hatake, and although the jounin was a very still sleeper, he still felt like something oppressive was holding him down and slowly choking him. He was relieved when Sakura came to shake him by the foot, telling him it was his turn.

It was chilly outside. The weather had turned colder and colder the farther they went from Konoha. They were traveling south towards the sea, and east of the land of Rivers. From what he had gleamed out of Tazuna's babbling, the land of Waves was a collection of small islands only reachable by boat. The man was building a bridge to remedy this problem and allow his town a better access for commerce. They would reach it by nightfall the following day.

He sat in silence, appreciating the reprieve from the stifling tent. Snow began falling after an hour. He wrapped his blanket tighter around himself and watched as the ground slowly turned white and small rodents ran away from their holes and into larger ones, huddling for warmth. There was nothing here to remind him of Konoha. No one to nag at him or watch him with sympathy. Even the trees were different, tall pines everywhere instead of knobby oaks. He felt a weight lift off his chest.

When it was time for Naruto's watch, Sasuke discovered a new reason to be annoyed with her. She was _hard_ to wake up, and far too energetic once he gave up the nice way and started kicking her. Thankfully they didn't disturb Sakura's sleep, but Sasuke barely avoided being kneed in the crotch. His sour mood only darkened when Naruto started cackling at him, suddenly wide awake, not looking at all like someone who ought to be suffering from severe sore limbs.

The next day started quietly. All of them were nursing various aches from sleeping on hard ground, except Hatake who was used to it and Naruto who apparently didn't know what physical pain felt like. Tazuna offered to pull the cart for the first part of the day. They folded the tents and took off, eager to reach their destination and settle down for the remnant of the mission.

It was barely noon—Naruto's stomach hadn't started complaining—when they were attacked.

Sakura was pulling the cart. Since she was the least physically strong of them, Naruto was helping her by pushing it from behind with one hand. The woods had started getting really quiet, until the only sounds they could hear were the ones they made. After a few minutes, Hatake spoke.

"Stop."

Sasuke tensed immediately. Tazuna took a few seconds to notice anything had been said, drunk as he was, but thankfully Naruto grabbed his arm and prevented him from wandering on his own.

"What's going on?" the man asked, looking at them with a puzzled expression.

Hatake didn't answer. They stood in silence for what felt like a small eternity, but was probably no more than a minute, until they were all looking around anxiously.

"Show yourselves," Hatake demanded. For a moment, it looked like nothing was going to happen, but then two men emerged from the trees, one on each side of the path they were on. Their faces were hidden underneath ugly muzzle-like gas masks, and they were wearing Mist forehead protectors.

 _This wasn't part of the plan_ , Sasuke's mind said helpfully.

"Not bad," one of the two ninja said. "We were concealing our presences rather carefully."

"Obviously not carefully enough," Hatake answered. "Kids, you protect Tazuna-san. I'll take care of these two quickly. Then we need to have a little chat," he added, eyeing Tazuna darkly. The bridge-builder seemed to shrink at the words, but didn't reply.

"Sakura," Sasuke murmured without looking away from the second man, the one at their rear. "You stay next to Tazuna-san at all times. Grab his arm and don't let go. Naruto, you protect his back."

"You got it," Sakura answered immediately, holding onto Tazuna's wrist.

"Who died and made _you_ the boss?" Naruto said, but Sakura looked at her angrily, and she complied.

"Cute," the second ninja, the one with spiky hair, commented. "But none of you will be able to prevent us from killing the old man. You should give him up and run."

Tazuna made a small, frightened sound.

"Fuck you," Naruto roared stupidly, and this was apparently all the incentive they needed to start attacking.

Sasuke, half-frozen with fear, wanted to watch Hatake and wait for his orders. But his sensei was busy with the one wearing the long dark cape, and the one with spiky hair was already targeting them, faster and stronger than anyone he had faced before.

The man went for Naruto first. Sasuke watched her thin face express the terror he felt, saw the way her body refused to move like his did. His heart was beating in the back of his mouth, filling it with a metallic taste, and for a second he was thrown back five years into the past, back to that night with the noise and the smell and his brother's eyes looking like all the world's pain had taken refuge in them.

It was enough to trigger reflexes acquired from years of training and weeks of daily sparring. He ran, as fast as he could, and threw his leg at the enemy. The Kiri nin avoided him easily, but at least he was thrown off-course and forced to jump away. Naruto was safe.

The girl hadn't moved at all. Her eyes were wide and unseeing, her hands trembling. Sasuke felt something sharp tug at his heart at the sight, but he refused to lose his focus. He crossed the two steps between them and slapped the girl in the back of the head.

She blinked owlishly at him. "Are you awake now?" he snarled, before turning back to the unknown shinobi. "Snap out of it. We have to protect Tazuna."

"But I've never- he's so strong-"

"Look at me," he ordered, waiting for her to lift her head. He couldn't turn his head away from his target to check on her, but he was satisfied that she was reacting nonetheless. "We're on a mission. Hatake-sensei gave us orders. We protect Tazuna. Don't think about anything else."

As far as pep talks went, it was pretty lame. But Naruto finally straightened out of her strange stillness. She shook her head violently and stepped back to Tazuna's position.

Hatake appeared next to Sasuke. He didn't jump, but he did look briefly to see how his teacher was faring. He seemed uninjured, if a little worried, which was good.

"These two are chuunin, I think," he said in a low voice. Sasuke nodded, understanding the man's message. _Out of your league_.

"We'll keep the one in brown busy," he said. "Looks like he's weaker than the one with the cape anyway."

Hatake hummed, before forming a few hand seals. "You do that. I'll be right back." Then he took a deep breath, and used a fire jutsu at the enemies.

Sasuke barely had time to be surprised at the familiar sight—this was an Uchiha technique, how the _hell_ had Hatake managed to get his hands on it—before the spiky-haired nin came rushing back at him, engaging him fully.

He lucked out this time. The man was well-trained, but the heavy metal gauntlet he was wearing—and which Sasuke was doing his best to avoid—made him slow. Sasuke was fast, faster than anyone else in his class and on his team. He managed to land a few hit to the man's ribs and kidneys, making him swear loudly and jump away from him.

The man laughed. Sasuke took a step back and tensed. This couldn't mean anything good.

"You're rather good, for a brat," the Kiri nin declared. He raised his gauntlet, and a long thick chain fell out of it, covered in sharp steel spikes. "Unfortunately, you're not good enough."

He took off towards where his ally was battling Kakashi with a similar chain. Then he yelled something, and the chains connected, forming one long blade between them that surrounded Hatake's body and _sliced_.

There were no words that could describe the sound of steel tearing flesh. Sasuke's stomach rose to his mouth, but he made himself swallow the puke back and stand on trembling limbs.

They were alone now, he realized shakily. With no jounin to protect them, they were going to _die_.

Sakura screamed and Tazuna fell on his knees, but barely any of this registered in his mind. The man in brown clothes dropped his now-useless chain, not taking the time to admire his handiwork. Instead he ran at them, knocking Sasuke over with one arm. He took a kunai out of his thigh holster and brandished it at where Sakura stood with her hand still holding onto Tazuna.

He barely saw Naruto move. The girl threw herself between the enemy and Sakura, raising her arm to protect her face. The kunai buried itself to the hilt into her palm, but she didn't flinch. Using the Mist shinobi's second of hesitation, she formed the seal for shadow clones. Three appeared around her and started attacking, yelling all the while, until the man was forced to retreat, overwhelmed by the sudden onslaught.

And then Hatake was there, not sign of a wound on him, and took him out in one swift punch.

It took a long while for Sasuke to come to his senses after that. He was gaping at his teacher, he knew, but he couldn't care less. "But I," he babbled, trying to disperse the fog clouding his mind, "you… How are you…?"

"Replacement technique," Hatake answered simply. His hand fell on Sasuke's shoulder and made him sit down at the root of a large tree. A sudden bout of panic made him look around for the other Mist nin; he found him lying face-down at the place where he'd failed to kill Hatake. He wasn't moving anymore, and Sasuke wondered if he was dead. He found he didn't care.

Hatake made all of them sit down, even Tazuna. He crouched to take Naruto's injured hand into his own and rip the kunai out of it. Naruto made a brief, strangled noise, and Sasuke felt his stomach roll again at the sight of his teammate's mangled palm. There was a _hole_ in it that he could see through. Hatake examined the wound for a long minute, turning Naruto's hand carefully in his own, the other holding her wrist tightly to stop the bleeding. He asked Sakura to help him bandage it up, and the other girl obeyed with steady hands, although she was white as a sheet and biting her own lips until she bled. Catching Sasuke's gaze, Naruto smirked and mouthed 'I'm so much cooler than you', waving her injury at him. The snort that escaped him was too close to a sob for his liking. He gave her the finger.

Once Hatake was finished tying up their assailants against the trunk of a tree, he slapped the spiky-haired one awake. The other one was bleeding from his side and didn't look like he was going to be able to talk anytime soon.

The Mist shinobi took in the scene and his own state. He struggled in vain, then, realizing that he wasn't going to be able to escape, laughed loudly at them. "The little girl is going to die," he announced, his dark eyes fixed on Naruto. "That kunai was poisoned."

They all turned to observe Naruto, even Hatake. The girl grinned impishly at them, shaking her

head. "I'm fine," she said. "I don't feel sick at all. No poison in sight."

She certainly looked fine. A little pale and wide-eyed, but there was no visible symptom for poisoning. Sasuke huffed, kicking himself mentally for falling for the enemy's bluff.

Said enemy was looking at Naruto like she'd grown a second head. "That's impossible," he muttered. "You shouldn't be able to move or talk by now."

"If you're quite finished," Hatake said airily, "I'd like to know why you attacked us."

The man shut down immediately. He nudged at his ally, trying to assess his condition, but the other man didn't budge. A curse fell from his lips.

"I'm being kind here," Hatake continued. "You could confess now, and watch me send a good word to Konoha. Or I can leave the two of you here and in the capable hands of whichever nation finds you first. If you're lucky, you could end up in Konoha's Torture and Interrogation department. Although I know first-hand that Morino Ibiki has been perfecting his techniques." The man blanched. Hatake didn't seem to care. "Or it could be Kirigakure, who would no doubt be overjoyed to get its hands back on two of its missing nin."

 _So they're deserters_ , Sasuke thought. Shinobi who fled their village and their responsibilities,betraying all their oaths and comrades to become mercenaries at the hands of whoever could buy their services. He had heard of them. So very few ninja ever betrayed Konoha that the ones who did became instantly famous, like Orochimaru of the Sannin. _Like Itachi_.

"You two are known as the Demon Brothers in the latest bingo book," Hatake was saying, as if talking about the weather. "I remember now. You're chuunin who defected from Kiri a few months ago. The bounty on your head isn't too big, so I'm guessing the Mizukage doesn't care whether you come back dead or alive."

"You know _nothing_ ," the man snarled. Kakashi nodded patiently.

"You're right, I don't. And I don't care. However, you attacked my client, and therefore you're my problem. Now, will you tell me who hired you and why, or do I have to put this mission on hold to send a hawk to the Land of Water?"

The silence lasted a while longer this time. Then the man chuckled and lifted his head, looking at Tazuna menacingly.

"Gato sent me." This meant nothing to Sasuke, and a quick glance at Sakura and Naruto told him that they were as lost as he was. "He'll know we failed, and he'll send others, stronger ones. You know he has the money. You should kill yourself now, it'll be less painful than what the next crazy guy he sends does to you and your kids."

Tazuna looked sick now, sicker than he had even when he was too drunk to speak. All color had left his face, and his hands were opening and closing spasmodically. He looked on the verge of an attack of some kind.

"Thank you," Hatake said, before knocking the guy out cleanly. He checked the ropes one last

time, set a few seals on them, and then told his team to get up and start walking. Still dazed, Sasuke obeyed, taking care of the cart since Sakura had been pulling it for a while and Naruto was injured. They walked in complete silence for the better part of an hour. When they reached a clearing with a little stream running through it, Hatake ordered a stop. Then he turned to Tazuna.

"Now that we're a safe distance away from unwanted ears, would you mind explaining yourself, Tazuna-san?"

x

Naruto hissed when Sakura removed the wrapping from her hand, expecting pain, but she felt only the slightest tingle. Her friend threw the blood-stained gauze into a plastic bag that she tucked carefully at the bottom of her backpack, before leaning in closer to examine the wound. Naruto held back her blush with little trouble. She was getting better at controlling her reactions around her teammate.

"This is weird," Sakura declared, peering at her hand. "It doesn't look like a fresh injury… See the back? I could swear there was a hole half an inch wide through your hand when I wrapped it up, but now it just looks like two nasty cuts on either side that you received a week ago."

Naruto laughed nervously in answer. She had an idea what was happening, but it wasn't something she could share with her friends. Even if she could—and old man Hokage had been very clear about the fact that she couldn't—she wouldn't want to. Her little secret would only scare Sakura away, and this was something she absolutely wanted to avoid.

"Is this some kind of bloodline thing?" Sakura asked.

"Maybe? I've always healed fast, I think." Naruto scratched at her chin. It was true that bruises had never stayed on her for more than a few hours, and that cuts tended to disappear at an abnormal rate. As a child she had never payed much attention to it, but now that she knew about the Kyuubi, it seemed logical that this was some sort of side effect of having the beast sealed inside her.

And then there was the burning sensation she had felt when the former Mist nin had stabbed her earlier. It had gone up her arm and spread through her chest, suffocating her for a second before vanishing entirely. She had never been poisoned before, but she was almost sure that the man hadn't been joking when he said she shouldn't have been standing up. Somehow, she had been stabbed with a blade covered in deadly poison, and she had survived with barely a scratch.

 _Yeah, definitely the Kyuubi_. All in all, this was a rather useful ability. She'd probably be pushingdaisies by now if not for it. Having that thing inside her did come with some perks after all.

Sakura told her to put her hand in the water, so she did. It was a little awkward, since the stream had dug its bed low in the ground, so she had to lean over the side to reach its surface. She was almost sure Sasuke was laughing at her from behind. She resolved to take her revenge, but didn't dare move while Sakura was watching her.

Hatake-sensei was still talking with old man Tazuna. She couldn't hear what they were saying from where she was, but Sasuke was standing beside them, listening intently, and she was sure he would tell them what he knew. Or at least tell Sakura. She frowned at the thought. Sometimes it was as though the bastard forgot that she had the ability to think for herself.

Well, not that she would have understood much anyway. Hatake-sensei had acted like the Demon Brother's words earlier had been some kind of grand revelation, and hadn't even pretended to be bored since then. He was just serious. All business-like. It was strange. The enemy's words had sounded like gibberish to her—although to be perfectly honest that was maybe the post-fight high speaking—but obviously there was something serious going on here.

Once Sakura deemed the cuts sufficiently cleaned, she dried them and rewrapped them with one simple turn of gauze around her palm, instead of the full hand binding she'd used earlier. Naruto concealed her relieved sigh. She was starting to regain feeling in her extremities and all she wanted to do was wiggle her fingers until she was a hundred percent sure nothing was wrong.

They stood in up time to see Hatake-sensei gesture at them to come closer. Sasuke glanced at Naruto's hand when they arrived, but didn't say anything. She scowled at him anyway.

"We're giving up this mission," their teacher announced.

" _What_? Why?" Naruto asked indignantly. She didn't like Tazuna a lot, and the attack earlier had been scary, but this was her first C-rank mission. She didn't want to come home empty-handed.

Hatake-sensei waved a hand in Sasuke's direction. The boy shot him a resentful look and started explaining the situation in a clipped tone. "Apparently Tazuna lied about the difficulty of the mission because he didn't have the money for more than a C-rank. There's a man named Gato who took over all the shipments in Waves and bankrupted the people. Tazuna's bridge is supposed to overthrow him, but Gato's using gangs and missing nin for hire to prevent him from building it."

The jounin nodded. "And since apparently this Gato wants Tazuna-san dead enough to send a pair of high-level chuunin to kill him," he added, "he's probably willing to do even more. We don't have the manpower to take on jounin-level mercenaries. We're going home."

"This is the worst mission ever," Naruto moaned. "Now the Hokage won't ever let us have another C-rank. This sucks so much."

"Shut up, idiot," Sasuke replied, because he was an asshole.

"You're just scared because of how useless you were when these Demon Brother dudes attacked earlier."

" _You're_ the one who got stabbed in the hand because you don't know a single useful taijutsu move! All you have is these stupid clones!"

"Well at least I don't keel over half-dead when I try to make one-"

"That's enough," Hatake-sensei called. Sasuke turned away from her promptly, looking infuriatingly superior, and she resisted the urge to call him 'daddy's good little boy', but only because that would have been extremely mean of her, considering their strangely respectful meeting in the cemetery two days ago. She still didn't know what to make of that one. But she didn't want to insult his family.

Instead, she spat at his feet.

This almost started another fight, but Sakura was restraining her and Hatake-sensei had a firm hand on Sasuke's shoulder by the time they were ready to jump at each other's throat, so the aggression died quickly.

"Control her, would you," Hatake-sensei murmured at Sakura, who nodded.

It hurt to see her friend agree with him, but Naruto shoved the uncomfortable feeling away with ease. She was used to the man's disregard by now, even if she didn't like it. At least he was just ignoring her, not preying on her. She liked his sort better.

 _I wonder who the Kyuubi took from him_ , she thought, not for the first time.

Hatake-sensei didn't want them to leave immediately. They were all tired and recovering from the Demon Brothers' attack. Naruto felt fine—her hand wasn't even hurting anymore, and she could almost close it into a fist. But Sakura was still a little wobbly around the knees, and even Sasuke looked too solemn.

They took a break in the clearing, not exactly setting up camp, but not prepping up to leave either. Sakura shared a ration bar with Naruto. They munched in silence for a while. Tazuna was sitting away from their group, his back against a tree. He had taken out his smelly bottle again and was sipping at it every five minutes, mumbling incoherently. Naruto shuddered.

She wasn't the first to notice the mist. Sasuke had sighed unhappily when it started covering them, and Sakura had mumbled something about spoiled food before packing everything back into her bag. However, Naruto was the only one to find something wrong with it.

It didn't _feel_ like mist. She couldn't explain it, even to herself. It was wet, and cold, and so thick she couldn't see beyond a five-meter radius. It certainly looked like regular fog. But there was something about it, an unfamiliar heaviness, that felt unnatural to her. It stuck to her skin like sweat.

At one point, Hatake-sensei raised his head in alarm. "To me," he ordered. With an unsettling feeling deep in her gut, Naruto complied. For a few more minutes, it didn't look like anything was going to happen. The mist thickened again, until it had blinded them completely. None of them really appreciated sticking their back to one of the others', but Hatake-sensei insisted on it. Tazuna looked like he was sincerely regretting ever relying on their help. _Serves him right_ , Naruto thought ruefully. It wasn't their fault the man had lied and put them all in danger.

"Duck!" Hatake-sensei cried suddenly. His arms pushed them all to the ground, his right hand resting into Naruto's hair. Not a second later, something huge flew over their head with a sharp

sound. Despite everything—and everyone—yelling at her that it was a Very Bad Idea, Naruto raised herself to her feet to peer at the giant sword deeply buried into the nearest tree.

A man landed on top of the handle. He was very tall, with tan skin and the lower half of his face covered in bandages. He met her eyes and chuckled darkly.

One second later, Naruto was roughly pulled back by the collar of her jacket. Hatake-sensei didn't meet her eyes after he released her into Sakura's arms, but she could still feel his anger. A very foreign feeling rose up in her, akin to shame.

"Hand over the old man," the man on the sword said. "Kubikiribouchou won't miss next time around."

"This is the name of one of Mist's most famous swords. The ones wielded by the seven shinobi-gatana. You must be Momochi Zabuza, then," Hatake-sensei answered.

Naruto couldn't stop watching her teacher's face. She had never seen him like this. Although he had been more serious and attentive since the Demon Brothers had attacked them, he had never looked like this. Now he was as still as a statue, and the air around him seemed to simmer with his intent. She didn't think an insect flying by could have gone unnoticed by him. All of this, much more than his words, told her that they were in a very bad situation.

"Ooh," Zabuza said in a quietly amused tone. "You know my name. Then you must know it's useless to try and go against me. You have," his gaze swept over their group, stopping on each of their faces, "three kids to protect, not counting my target. I hear Konoha is very protective of its genin. Surely you don't want to sacrifice them so early."

And with that, he ripped the great sword out of the tree and swung it in Naruto's direction. Hatake-sensei reacted instantly. He wrapped his arm around her and pushed her to the ground. The blade brushed the metallic plate of her headband with a chilling sound. With her back flat on the snow-covered ground and her body battling shock, it took her a moment to realize her bangs were in her eyes, and the sword had taken her protector entirely off her head.

She made a small, terrified sound in the back of her throat. Hatake-sensei released her, his eye bloodshot with anger, and turned back to Zabuza.

"You're faster than I thought," the man commented. He shrugged, completely oblivious of the fact that he had _almost cut Naruto's head off_ , before speaking again. "Come now, don't be thick. You can't beat me. Give me Tazuna, and I'll consider letting you and your kids go."

"You'll consider." The jounin's voice was calm, but it sent a chill down Naruto's spine. "Not nearly enough insurance for me. No, I don't think you're going to let any of us go."

Zabuza roared in laughter. "You're a clever one, aren't you? No, I don't intend to let you out of here alive. I know your kind, Konoha pets, running around to whisper little trade secrets to your Hokage. I don't want my job here compromised. Sorry, nothing personal about it."

"Very well," Hatake-sensei answered. He exhaled, and then took a kunai out of his thigh pouch,

twirling it expertly until he was sure of his grip. "Sasuke, girls. I need you to stay together _no_ _matter what_. Stay with Tazuna, protect your own back. This isn't an opponent you can beat. I'mgoing to need all my concentration here, and I can't focus if I'm not _sure_ that none of you is trying to be a hero."

Zabuza was watching them talk without attacking, apparently waiting for Hatake-sensei. He simply walked around them and took back his sword, carelessly discarding Naruto's headband which was still stuck at its end. With nausea rolling down her stomach, Naruto realized that this was his sick way of allowing them to have their last goodbyes.

There was something there, something far away in her mind calling for her attention, but she shut it out.

"Remember," their instructor murmured. He lifted his free hand to his face and raised his forehead protector high on his head, showing his right eye for the very first time. "Don't try to be a hero. As soon as you see an opening, take it and run. Tazuna is no longer your responsibility. Just don't die."

Naruto had just enough time to observe the thin scar running through the left side of his face, cutting right in the middle of his closed eyelid, before he disappeared.

She watched him battle Zabuza with her heart beating in her mouth. They were fast. All she could see were blurs of movements, what could have been Hatake-sensei's arm or his knee or the glint of his kunai. Zabuza was keeping up effortlessly despite the heavy sword in his hands and the time it took for him to wave it around.

"Naruto," Sakura was calling her name, pulling on her sleeve, trying to get her closer to them. Her face was pale. A look at Sasuke and Tazuna informed her that they weren't faring much better, even if Sasuke at least seemed steady on his legs.

"We need a plan," the boy said immediately, his eyes never leaving the fight. "We can't leave him alone."

"Damn right," Naruto nodded.

Sakura, however, was looking at them like as if she had never seen them before. "Are you _crazy_?" she yelled. "We can't beat someone like that! We couldn't even beat those chuuninearlier, and this guy has to be at least jounin-level!"

"Would you rather we let sensei fight him alone then?" Naruto growled.

" _Yes_." Her voice was absolute. Her green eyes bore into Naruto with determination, anger and fear. "I'm not letting you go out there. I'll knock you out if I have to. I'm _not_ losing you." Her grip on Naruto's sleeve had moved to her wrist and was tightening by the second.

"Why?" Naruto asked, slightly light-headed. "Why do you care?"

"Is this really the moment?" Sasuke replied. He was looking at her strangely, but whatever he was thinking apparently wasn't worth sharing. "What's the first lesson Hatake taught us? The

only lesson, really? You don't abandon your comrades."

"Yeah, and see how well that turned out," Sakura cried, her tone was turning high-pitched with terror. "He doesn't care about us, he wishes he never had to take care of us in the first place. He'd probably leave us here to die if his own life wasn't at stake! And why do _you_ care," she added, pointing wildly at Naruto, "he fucking _hates_ you."

It hurt, more than anything. At this instant Sakura looked so much like the rare people who had come directly at her in the past, the adults with wide bleeding holes in their hearts and eyes like a cemetery. The ones who whispered the worst insults and delivered the worst blows, the ones who disappeared quickly and left scars in her soul. But Sakura wasn't like them. She was trying to hurt her to _protect_ her.

"Besides," and her voice was shaking, her hand around Naruto's wrist was shaking, her whole body was wrecked with tremors, "he gave us orders. This isn't a classroom. This is a battlefield. We're supposed to obey orders, aren't we? That's what shinobi do, and we're shinobi."

Naruto and Sasuke exchanged a look. Naruto's bandaged hand came to rest on Sakura's, pressing down gently until her grip softened and she could free herself. "Sakura-chan," she said slowly. "I'm sorry, but I would rather die than abandon my own teacher to save my skin."

"Naruto-"

She cried out and fell forward. Naruto caught her just in time to avoid having her head hit the ground. She lowered her now unconscious friend carefully and looked up at Sasuke, baring her teeth at him.

"You didn't have to knock her out, you asshole!"

"We don't have time for this," Sasuke replied angrily, jerking her to her feet. "You know she wasn't gonna change her mind. We need to concentrate, she can deal once we're all safely away from here."

"You're all crazy," Tazuna said suddenly.

Naruto blinked in surprised and turned to look at him. He was barely able to sit up, one arm thrown haphazardly behind him and holding on to muddy roots. His eyes were jumping erratically from Sakura's still body to Sasuke to Naruto and backwards. Hi breath was coming out in short, panicked pants, and his face was turning green.

"You saw what this guy was capable of, and you want to run straight at him? You're _children_ ," he added, eyes wide in realization. "Oh, God, you're children. You're going to die."

"We're _shinobi_ ," Naruto corrected. After everything, the Academy and the life in Konoha and the Hokage's trust and the missions with her team, she could finally say it with a sure voice. "That's what we do. And just to be clear, we're not doing it for you, we're doing to protect a fellow team member. Suck it up and deal, old man."

Once the man was suitably cowed by her menacing expression, Naruto turned back to Sasuke.

"So, what do we do?" She hated having to rely on him like that, but even she could admit that planning wasn't her forte. She could come up with nice tricks on the spot, but she never knew or remembered how her brain worked in these situations. She just saw the openings and took them. It made her unpredictable, but it also made her useless when it came to long-term stuff or complex team work. She couldn't think for the others after all.

"First we need to get closer to them," Sasuke murmured. "I need to watch them and see if there's any weakness in Zabuza that Hatake can't exploit, but we can. Create one clone to keep an eye on things here, just in case. You'll know anyway if it disappears, right?"

"Yeah," she said simply. This was still new to her, as she had always used her clones to try and overpower her adversaries or to train with them herself. She gave and received so many blows during those trainings that she honestly never noticed the difference between her own memories and the clones'. It still stung that Sakura had noticed before she did, though, even with Hatake-sensei's help.

She took a second to look at her friend with sadness. She hoped it wasn't the last time they talked. She didn't want her last memory of Sakura to be the surprise on her face as her own teammates struck her in the back. Shaking her thoughts off, she created the clone and left with Sasuke.

They quietly ran under the cover of the trees, trying to approach the fight without attracting Zabuza's attention. Hatake-sensei looked rather worse for wear, Naruto noticed with worry. There was a long, if shallow, cut in his back. He was panting, but so was Zabuza, whose left arm hung limply at his side. It didn't look like he could move it.

Then Naruto lifted her eyes to her sensei's face and saw his scarred eye open and staring straight ahead, its iris a vibrant red. At her side, Sasuke let out a gasp.

"What's wrong?" she whispered, frowning. He looked like he had seen a ghost.

"That's-" He paused. "That's the Sharingan." His voice was thick with emotion, almost reverent. For some reason, it left a bad taste in the back of her mouth.

Naruto looked back at the fight taking place in front of them. "What, you mean Hatake-sensei's weird eye? What is it?"

"It's one of the famous eye techniques of Konoha. It's the Uchiha clan's bloodline limit."

"Really?" She narrowed her eyes, and managed to make out the little black commas that surrounded her teacher's pupil. "Then how does he have it? I thought the Uchiha were all-" She stopped talking, barely resisting the urge to smack herself in the face. But it was too late: Sasuke was hunching in on himself, his face somber.

"It doesn't matter right now," he said. "We need to find a way to get closer."

"And do what?" a voice enquired politely.

Naruto didn't have to turn around in surprise. Sasuke was already grabbing her by the arm and dragging her out of the way. Just in time, too, because a nasty-looking water jutsu was engulfing their hiding spot. Zabuza emerged from the trees after them, chuckling lightly.

 _A clone?_ Naruto wondered, sweeping a look to where Hatake-sensei was still engaging the realZabuza. But the one before her had used ninjutsu. _A shadow clone, then. Or something else._

"He must have created it before he even showed himself to us," Sasuke muttered. "Look. His arm isn't injured."

Indeed it was not, and the Zabuza-clone showed it by clapping his hands slowly. "You're a bunch of smart little guys, aren't you? It's just too bad that you have to die so soon."

The strange apprehension was back in Naruto, buzzing through her head. "If you're a shadow clone, then we just have to hit you once and you'll be gone," she said, forcing herself to focus.

"That's if you manage to land a hit on me," he replied.

These words took her back a few weeks, to Sakura's anger and her teacher's calm avoidance. Sakura had failed then, but she had almost succeeded, when she used that powerful kick that half-destroyed a rock. And Naruto couldn't afford to fail this time.

"You're not the only one who knows how to make clones!" she yelled, forming the hand seals for her shadow clone technique. Twelve copies appeared around her and immediately ran forward.

Naruto stayed behind herself. Every time one of her clones popped out of existence, she received its memories. It was obvious now that she was paying attention to it; she could feel the onslaught of sounds and pictures and the fatigue that spread through her muscles even though she hadn't moved. She had hoped that one of them might hit Zabuza, but he side-stepped them all and hit them with his sword, and they vanished in clouds of smoke.

"I don't see any opening," she told Sasuke, who was watching attentively as well, "but I'm not very good, so I'm not sure."

Sasuke nodded. "I think I can take him. I'm faster than you."

"Well, don't rub it in, asshole."

She had said it half-heartedly, and he didn't answer. In front of them, the clone laughed again.

"You're hilarious," he declared, leaning on his sword. "Such confidence! I shouldn't have expected any less from Hatake Kakashi's student. He truly is a remarkable opponent. I probably couldn't have taken him if you hadn't provided me with a perfect opportunity. Thank you for that," he added, surprisingly sincere.

Naruto didn't have time to wonder at his words, because she was suddenly neck-deep in water, and she had to use all her strength to take a deep breath before it reached her mouth and

nose.

She couldn't escape it. No matter how much she squirmed, how much she kicked or tried to swim out of it, the water followed her everywhere. Panic and exhaustion overtook her. She was sure she was crying. A fuzzy shape with a mop of dark hair was trashing next to her, and she understood vaguely that Sasuke had been caught as well. There was no air and only little light. Her throat burned, as well as her lungs, screaming for her to open her mouth and inhale. She resisted as long as she could.

And then, as quickly as it had appeared, the water fell away from her, leaving her panting on her back, freezing in her wet clothes. Sasuke was on his knees, breathing in long sobs. Naruto took in her surroundings and rose up, trembling, just in time to see the Zabuza-clone changing into water and flowing to the ground as well, with Hatake-sensei's hands buried in its chest.

For a precious second, she wanted to leap in joy. Then she remembered that the real Zabuza was still here, running toward her sensei with a crazy glint in his eyes, forming hand seals so fast that his hands were only a blur to her.

 _I thought he couldn't move his arm_ , she wanted to cry out. Hatake was too late to avoid thesame technique that had taken her and Sasuke. He was enveloped in a sphere of water, forced to roll around in vain to try and catch a wisp of air.

"Sasuke," she sobbed.

The boy was silent. He too was watching the spectacle, still kneeling on the cold ground. His whole body was sagging in defeat.

"We need to help him." She walked to his side and tugged weakly at his shirt, trying to make him rise to his feet, trying to do _something_. "Sasuke, _please_ , he's going to die!"

He didn't move, didn't look at her, didn't even acknowledge her presence. Naruto released him and put a shaking hand in her shuriken pouch, throwing a handful of them at Zabuza. The man snorted and avoided them easily. She created twenty clones. This time around, he didn't bother trying to avoid them all. He simply brandished the great sword and swung it around, and they all disappeared, either when it cut them or when they hit the ground trying to dodge it.

"You should run, girlie," Zabuza told her. He was still turned toward where her teacher was slowly drowning, but his black eyes were watching her. "I'll be busy here for a while, taking care of your sensei and the other kid, not to mention securing Tazuna. You won't get another opportunity like this. Take the boy with you if you want."

Once again, although she couldn't explain it, she was sure that he was being sincere. The buzzing was back, loud in her hears and her mouth. It made her want to vomit.

Taking a deep breath, she started shaking Sasuke as violently as she could. "Get _up_ , bastard."

Zabuza snorted at her antics. "He won't get up," he said. "I know his type. Wimpy, coddled all their life. They think they're geniuses, and once they start fighting for good they're the first to

die."

"Shut the fuck up," she growled at him. Then, turning back to Sasuke, "You better get your ass up and soon. I need your help, and Sakura-chan needs your help, and so does Hatake-sensei." She took his arm and threw it around her shoulders, supporting his weight until his feet were under him and she felt him regain some balance. "We're going to die if you don't," she said, despair clogging her throat. "I thought you had a dream! You have someone you need to find, don't you? You can't die here!"

This seemed to get a reaction out of him. _Fucking finally_ , she thought. Sasuke took his arm off her and rubbed his face. When he straightened up, he seemed a little lost and pale, but at least he wasn't so _empty_ anymore. His hair still hung in his eyes, damp from the water technique. He flattened it back and took a critical look around. Naruto almost heaved in relief.

"I think we should just go all out at him and try to break his hold on sensei," she said with the barest hint of a smile.

He nodded and started to form hand seals. Recognizing the great fireball technique he had used countless times during training, Naruto jumped behind him.

Zabuza seemed taken aback by the turn of events, but it didn't slow him down. Although the fireball forced him to step away from the water bubble holding Hatake-sensei prisoner — _killing_ _him_ , she tried not to think, _he's drowning and he's already been in there so long oh God we need to free him quickly_ —his arm was still firmly holding the water in place.

"Naruto, can you try and knock that sword of his away?" Sasuke asked in a rough voice. The fireball technique always left him with a sore throat, she knew. "If you do that I can try to go at him hand-to-hand, try to make him lose hold."

"You got it." She pushed herself, looking deep inside her for all she chakra she could muster without draining herself out. She created fifty clones this time around.

They crashed into Zabuza in waves, trying to get a hold of the sword, kicking at its blade, shrieking and biting and distracting him as much as they could until finally his fingers loosened their grip on the handle. Three clones kicked the weapon away. It flew into the stream.

As soon as it landed in the running water with a wet sound, Sasuke jumped into the battle. Naruto watched him with her heart in her mouth, praying for a punch to land, for a kick to hit, for anything as long as it broke the mercenary's focus. She refused to look at Hatake-sensei to see if he was still alive.

Her foot bumped into something. Her heart missed a beat, and she looked down, ready to see another Zabuza-clone appear and attack her, but it was only her backpack, abandoned here earlier. She blinked. And then a brilliant idea came at her.

"Sasuke!" she yelled. She did the hand seal, creating the clone she needed and watching it transform into a shuriken. She took the real one she had taken with her, the one they had all _mocked_ her for, she remembered hysterically, and threw them both at her teammate. He

caught them with a puzzled expression.

Their eyes met. For half a second, he seemed to think that she was crazy. But something came between them, like a burst of wind in her thoughts, and she knew that he had understood. She exhaled slowly and turned her attention back to Zabuza.

He was eyeing them disdainfully, all traced of humor lost by now. He wasn't playing anymore.

Sasuke took his position. He deployed the shuriken slowly, making sure the second one—her clone—wasn't visible from Zabuza's position. His face hardened in concentration. Finally, after the longest ten seconds of Naruto's life, he planted his left foot in the ground and leant forward, throwing them both at the enemy.

Zabuza avoided the top one with little trouble. His eyes widened when they noticed the one hiding in its shadow, but he sidestepped it as well, however closely. He huffed, annoyed, and looked back up at them, ready to taunt them with their failure.

Until he let out a cry and hunched forward, his hand slipping out of the water, as Naruto's clone buried a kunai in his back.

He snapped out of his surprise remarkably quickly, kicking the clone out of existence and remaking the seals for his technique. But Hatake-sensei was already gone. Naruto had come to fetch him as soon as her clone had cancelled the transformation, and was now helping the man cough water out of his lungs.

Soon enough, their sensei was standing on his own, dropping his hand from Naruto's shoulder with one last squeeze.

"I'm finishing this now," he said to Zabuza in a raspy voice. His hands were forming seals faster than she could see them.

A strident noise filled the clearing. It came from his hand and filled her ears until she couldn't hear anything else, making her head ache and her skin crawl with goosebumps. She could see blue light surround his arm, currents of chakra in the shape of lightning bolts running around his palm and fingers.

"Step back," he said to her softly. She could only comply, covering her ears with her hands and watching him wordlessly.

Once the frightening technique he was using seemed stable enough, he started running. She had no idea how he did it, considering he had been drowning less than a minute ago. He should be stuck to the floor, unable to move. She had expected that Sasuke and her would have to find a way to finish or at least incapacitate Zabuza on their own. Her relief that he was well enough to fight was almost palpable, but she still watched him like a hawk, waiting for him to fall down.

Sasuke apparently had a similar mindset. He must have been proud of his throw earlier—using long-distance weapons like fuuma shuriken was difficult and required a lot of training and skill— but he wasn't boasting. He just watched, not daring to breathe.

Hatake-sensei was only a few meters away from Zabuza now. The swordsman was in a better shape, but he was also tired and still had a kunai planted in his back. Naruto's clone had chosen to stab him in a place he would have a hard time reaching on his own. He knew, as she did, that pulling it out the wrong way could possibly damage his spinal cord.

Something moved in her peripheral vision. Someone dressed in strange clothes and wearing a mask was perched on a tree branch and about to throw a pair of long needles in the general direction of Hatake-sensei's assault. Naruto wanted to scream at him to watch out, but she was too late. The person threw their senbon without a sound.

Time slowed down. Hatake-sensei was almost at Zabuza's level now. He had started extending his arm forward instead of trailing it behind him and destroying the ground in his wake. Blue-lit fingers were almost touching his chest.

But Zabuza fell down before he could hit him. The senbon were had buried themselves into his throat, and he now lay completely still, the whites of his upturned eyes completely bloodshot. Hatake-sensei's arm burst through the bark of the tree the swordsman had been leaning on.

He tore his hand out as soon as the piercing noise was gone. Then he crouched next to Zabuza's body—he had to be dead, his chest wasn't moving—and touched the senbon.

The stranger fell down next to him and grabbed his wrist, stopping him before he could pull them out.

"You're a hunter-nin from Kiri," Hatake-sensei said. His voice was weaker than Naruto had ever heard it.

"Yes," the stranger replied. Their voice was sweet, almost melodious. It sounded like a woman's voice, but Naruto couldn't be sure. "I thank you for weakening him. It allowed me to take him out swiftly. Now, if you don't mind, I would like to take his body elsewhere and dispose of it."

"You're very young," he observed.

The hunter-nin just bowed his head, before hoisting Zabuza's arm on his should and disappearing in a puff.

And then, without so much as a warning, Hatake-sensei fell down as well.

"Sensei!" Naruto cried in alarm. She tried to move, but Sasuke grabbed her jacket.

"Don't," he said. "He's fine, he's not injured. It's probably just chakra exhaustion. I'll check him over. Go find Tazuna and Sakura and bring them back here. We need to decide what to do now."

She hesitated. Her mind was still very much in fighting mode, her feet ready to jump at the slightest noise. She hated the thought of leaving Sasuke alone while they didn't know who else could come and attack them. Then she realized that she was a ninja, and she could do both. She created a clone and ignored Sasuke's mumbling of "do you _ever_ get tired" while heading to

Tazuna's location.

The man was still here. As well as the clone she'd left there earlier. Apparently he had chosen not to flee, probably thinking that someone would eventually find him and that he had better chances of living if he surrounded himself with shinobi. Sakura, Naruto was sad to note, was still out cold. Sasuke must have hit her pretty hard.

"It is over?" Tazuna whispered, his face white as snow.

"Yeah."

She crouched next to Sakura's prone form. There was a bump on the back of her head, but it didn't look that bad.

"Follow me, old man," she ordered, as her clone pulled Sakura up and settled her on her back. Then it dispersed with a light popping sound, giving her half an hour's memories of anxious waiting. She shook it off.

Sasuke was fine when she came back, Tazuna in tow. He had laid Hatake-sensei on his belly, to avoid aggravating the cut in his back. He was currently trying to ignore the Naruto-clone's nervous babbling. Tazuna emitted a soft gasp when he saw the blood on her teacher's jacket.

"We can't stay here," Sasuke said immediately. He didn't even let her sit down. "If what those Demon Brothers guys said is true, then Gato will know that Zabuza failed his mission soon enough. We can't be here when that happens, we're two men down."

"More like, we don't have sensei to win our fights for us anymore," Naruto muttered. "And if we couldn't hold our own against Zabuza, imagine the next guy."

Sasuke frowned. "Right."

There was a short pause in the conversation. The silence was only filled by the sound of the running stream and the crunch of their feet in the snow.

"We can't go back to Konoha," Sasuke said quietly. "The road is too long and there's no telling when Hatake will wake up. We can't carry him. We could set up camp somewhere near but then we'd still be out in the open, and you and I are tired. In any case," he gestured to Tazuna, "you have to go. You're a walking target, you can't stay with us."

Naruto's shoulders sagged. Now that the elation of having _survived_ was fading, the complexity of their situation was making itself very clear, and she couldn't help agreeing with Sasuke's words. Tazuna couldn't stay with them. No matter how much she despised herself for thinking it, she would rather the man be killed and her team be safe. _Fuck C-rank missions_ , she thought helplessly. _When we come home I'm never complaining about a D-rank ever again_.

"I think I might actually be able to help you here," Tazuna replied.

The man pointed to his cart, abandoned on the other side of the clearing but intact. The battle had stayed far away from it.

"I could put Hatake-san on the cart and pull him along. My town is only an hour away from here. You four could stay until he is recovered enough to take the journey to Konoha."

Naruto didn't try to hide her surprise. "That's actually a great id-"

"No," Sasuke interrupted. "Are you stupid? We'd still be with him." His eyes flashed Tazuna a disgusted look. "We'd just get even closer to the enemy."

"But the guy-girl-whatever who took Zabuza's body was from Kiri, right?" she asked. "So maybe Gato won't find out that he failed his mission so soon. Maybe we have time to recover and head back to Konoha."

The boy took a minute to think about it, and she let him. She knew he would end up agreeing anyway. Naruto wasn't a very good tactician—too much sitting around, not enough doing things. She'd rather leave this to Sasuke, or even better, to Sakura. After that was what teams were for, right? To compensate for each member's defaults. Sasuke and Sakura had the brains, so Naruto would have the brute strength. She was perfectly fine with the fact.

"All right," Sasuke finally admitted. "We're going to Tazuna's. We're screwed either way."

Tazuna let out a relieved sigh.

The three of them lifted Sakura and Hatake onto the cart. They started walking, following the man's directions, but before they left the clearing Sasuke stopped.

"Hold on," he said. He walked a few steps away and picked something off the ground. When he came back, he handed it to Naruto without looking at her.

It was her Konoha headband. It was wet from the snow, half-covered in mud, and there was a crack on one side of the metal plate from where Zabuza's sword had knocked it off her head. But it was still Iruka's present and her most treasured possession, and she couldn't believe she had almost forgotten it.

"Thank you." Her voice was rough with emotion. Smiling at the flush on his cheeks and the way he resolutely avoided her eyes, she tied it back on her forehead, mindless of the mud that covered it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Trigger warnings** : violence, implied child abuse, death.

 **Chapter 3**

91 follows! Whatever did I do to deserve y'all? Thank you so much for reading and enjoying this story, for dropping all those nice reviews and just, thank you for existing. It means the world to me. Everyone grab a cookie and enjoy the next chapter.

 **Walking With a Ghost**

Chapter 3.

Kakashi opened his eyes to a foreign ceiling. A vivid headache struck him and he quickly closed his Sharingan. Once the pain had abated, he started cataloguing the aches littering his body. His back hurt the most, but it wasn't that bad. Probably just the hit from Zabuza's sword healing slowly. Since he was lying on it, it couldn't be serious. It could probably have been taken care of in an hour by a medic-nin, but there were obviously no such things here. Wherever here was.

Since he couldn't move, he studied the room he was in. It was obviously someone's bedroom. A woman's room. There were flowers by the window, and it was very clean. A child's drawings were pinned here and there. A family photograph stood by the futon he was using, showing a pretty young woman with what had to be her son. Behind them stood a smiling Tazuna.

So they were still in the Land of Waves then. Kakashi didn't know whether to thank his students for not attempting to return to Konoha unprotected—and with no sense of direction whatsoever —or to kick them for staying in such a dangerous place.

 _I guess they made the right choice, considering the circumstances_ , he thought tiredly. _It was probably Sasuke's idea_.

Shame promptly overcame him. Memories of his fight against Zabuza and the Demon Brothers came back to him, and with them Naru- Uzumaki's actions. The girl had held her own admirably. He couldn't remember very well what had happened during his time inside Zabuza's water prison, but he knew that she had caught him as he fell away. She must have played a part in getting him freed of this hell. His chest still felt the pressure of the water, his throat the desire to release the last of his oxygen and let himself die so that the pain would _stop_.

Well, he probably wouldn't have been caught if not for them in the first place. But this had little to do with their eagerness to disobey his orders to stay away. Zabuza already had a clone after them by that time, and they would have died if they hadn't tried to defend themselves.

He wondered if Haruno was okay. He hadn't seen her, but Sasuke and Uzumaki's actions hadn't looked like acts of revenge. She must have stayed behind with Tazuna when she realized that the other two were going to interfere anyway. Smart girl.

He shuddered as the memory of Sasuke and Uzumaki's bodies trashing and drowning flashed behind his eyelids. He had lost control then. He had turned his back on the real Zabuza and plunged his bare hand into the water clone's body, just to be sure, when a simple kick would have sufficed and given him ample time to dodge Zabuza's technique.

Despite everything—despite Tazuna's confession that this was his fault for lying about the dangers of the mission, despite his students' disobedience—he knew that this fiasco was to blame on him entirely. He had neglected their training and ignored their rightful anger. He had failed them worse than he had failed anyone since Obito, and he would fix this if that was the last thing he did.

He couldn't forget. Uzumaki's pale face as she let a knife mangle her own hand, just so that she could protect her comrade. Sasuke's body stopping all movements, the last of his breath leaving him, his lungs filling with water.

This was all on him. He had thought he could do this, could ignore the Hokage's orders with a viciousness he hadn't known he possessed and neglect the kids in his care. He had thought that he could just let them handle simple missions until they were finally taken off his hands. He hadn't wanted a genin team. And certainly not one with his dead teacher's daughter in it, or the last living member of his dead best friend's family.

Haruno's words came back to him for the hundredth time. She had called him a hypocrite and a terrible teacher. He had let his irritation get the better of him at the time, pushing away the hurt that she had awoken in him. It wasn't _his fault_ if Sarutobi didn't understand that even he had his limits. It wasn't his fault that he was saddled with a team of genin who was bound to die too young, and he hadn't wanted to get hurt like that again. He was the last living member of his own genin team. He never wanted this to be the case again.

Of course, he had been wrong.

 _Now_. His eye lingered on the photograph next to him, the carefree smiles and happy faces.

 _How am I going to change all this?_

A while later, the bedroom door opened. The young woman in the picture entered, holding a platter of food and a glass of water. She smiled at him.

"Ah, you're awake, Hatake-san," she said cheerfully. "I'll go tell your students immediately. They were all very worried."

She kneeled next to him and helped him rise to a sitting position, arranging cushions behind his back. He didn't wince, despite the pain the movement caused him.

The woman nodded to herself. "There, there, that should do it. Would you like some water?"

"Please," he answered. His voice was barely a whisper. She held the glass to his lips and he drank greedily. His mask wasn't on, he realized. He immediately looked around the room, but the woman stopped him.

"There," she murmured, giving him the item he had been looking for. "You ninja types and all your secrets. Naruto-chan was very curious, but I didn't let her in. I figured you were wearing it for a reason. Sakura-chan agreed with me. No one saw you, don't worry." She winked at him. "Although I really don't see why. You're very handsome."

He mumbled some sort of apology to her before putting it on. Once the bottom half of his face was properly covered, he felt himself relax. "Thank you," he told her feebly. "If you don't mind, where am I exactly? And where are my students?"

She hummed, setting the platter on his knees. "You're in Tazuna's house. I'm his daughter, Tsunami. Your students are all safe. You've been asleep since you arrived here yesterday."

 _Not too long, then_. This was a good sign. Kakashi knew that he had small chakra reserves, sowhen exhaustion hit him, it usually hit him hard. He had only used one Chidori against Zabuza, though, albeit after a couple of powerful water techniques he had copied on the spot. The fatigue mostly came from overusing the Sharingan—and probably almost drowning, he thought darkly. But if he was awake after only one day, then he could be at full strength in a week.

"I'll go fetch your students," Tsunami said when she understood that he wasn't going to talk. He felt a little badly about that. He hadn't meant to ignore her. No mater how much he wanted to gut her father, she hadn't done anything to him.

"Thank you," he said with as much sincerity in his voice as he could gather. She smiled at him.

"I should be thanking _you_ , for protecting my father. We're all very grateful." He hadn't really tried to protect Tazuna by the end, but he didn't deny it. She bowed before leaving the room.

Kakashi ate his meal quickly. He couldn't use any chakra at the moment, or he would pass out instantly. That meant that he couldn't deploy his usual genjutsu to hide his face. No matter how much he regretted his actions toward the kids, it still wasn't enough to make him show himself. It was bad enough that Tsunami had seen him. This hadn't happened since Kushina.

Just as the thought of Kushina's bright smile reached him, so did the shrill voice of her daughter. He put aside the food and covered his face again, looking at the door.

Uzumaki kicked it open, since apparently being tactful and discreet wasn't in her abilities. Sasuke was looking at him, and Haruno at the other girl. Both of them were scowling.

"Hatake-sensei" Uzumaki exclaimed, smiling excitedly. "You're all right then!"

"Will you _shut up_ ," Sasuke whined.

Haruno didn't say anything. She had the same look on her face that she had had just before destroying that rock a few weeks ago, and it was directed at her own teammate.

Well, this was a promising start.

"I'll be fine in a few days," he said curtly. "Can any of you tell me the situation?"

Sasuke took a step forward. "Since Zabuza's body was taken by a Kiri shinobi, we thought Tazuna would be safe from Gato's mercenaries for a few days. We couldn't travel with you and Sakura out cold, so we accepted his offer to stay at his house."

"More like _I_ accepted," Uzumaki mumbled. "You just wanted to hide in the woods." She looked

so much like her mother with that dissatisfied expression that it was painful.

Kakashi shook off the intermittent thoughts that always tried to crawl into his mind when he was in the girl's presence. He wondered why Haruno had been unconscious, but it wasn't the time to ask. He would without a doubt get the whole story later anyway. Haruno was annoyingly thorough like that. But there was something calling for his attention at the edge of his memory, something he hadn't had time to worry about before passing out.

"I don't think Zabuza is dead," he announced. As he'd thought, their faces became an interesting mix of doubt and horror. It seemed all of them suddenly worried a lot more about his head than the rest of his body.

"He had _two senbon through his throat_ ," Sasuke pointed out.

"Yeah, not to mention that his eyes were rolled all the way back," Uzumaki added helpfully. "All we could see was white, it was disgusting. He wasn't breathing anymore, sensei."

Kakashi shook his head. "I had my suspicions when this hunter boy appeared. For one, he was way too young. No matter how strong he is, no hidden village will trust a job as important as hunter-nin in the hands of someone so young. He couldn't have been older than you all."

Haruno had stopped glaring a hole into Uzumaki's back to glare at him instead. For a second he wondered what he had done this time, until he realized that this was just her 'thinking' face.

He cleared his throat and continued. "Furthermore, hunter-nin aren't supposed to take the bodies anywhere. Once they have them, they have to start destroying them without moving them. They're also never alone. No one can be trusted not to take a dead body's secret techniques, especially bloodlines. That's why the bodies are never destroyed anywhere but the place they died, and why it's always done in someone else's presence. Generally a ninja from the dead person's clan, or a neutral party."

"That's nice, but it still doesn't explain the not-breating part," Haruno cut him. "I don't know what they teach jounin these days, but when you stop breathing, you body has that terrible tendency to _die_."

She flipped her hair back for a better effect. Her tone was incredibly rude. She hadn't done much to try and manage it since she had confronted him and he had humiliated her, although she made an effort around Uzumaki. That was probably only because she respected her friend more than she did him, and Uzumaki disliked it when people got mad on her behalf. _And are_ _you really surprised by this?_ a voice was saying far away within him.

"Senbon aren't very good for killing," he answered instead in an even voice. "They demand a lot of skill and precision, as well as a deep knowledge of the human anatomy. Most hunter-nin carry precision weapons, yes, but not this precise. They have to be sure to strike for the kill, after all." He tapped his chopsticks against his thigh pensively. "However, with the rapidity of the throw and how neatly Zabuza fell, I don't doubt that this boy, whoever he is, is very good with them. Possibly good enough to not only kill anyone he wants in one strike, but also hit a spot that would _make_ it look like a person died."

"Is that even possible?" Uzumaki said with incredulity. She was probably wondering how someone this young could be this talented. Kakashi wanted to laugh. This generation would never know the era of child-geniuses that Konoha had tried so hard to have. Kids too young to have left their mother's breast for long. Chuunin at six, jounin at twelve. Leading armies and friends to their deaths.

Sarutobi had put an end to it as soon as Itachi had snapped, seizing the opportunity the boy had unknowingly given him. But the other hidden villages were not so gentle yet. If the boy had grown up in the Bloody Mist, Kakashi wouldn't be surprised if he was already at jounin level.

"There are all sorts of pressure points on the body. Some create pain, some pleasure. Some can kill you or put you to sleep. Some might be able to put you in a dead-like state, slowing your heart enough that you can stay alive, but barely. Just enough to be transported somewhere else and revived carefully. I don't know for sure."

"When in doubt, always assume the worst," Sasuke said. His eyes were dark, staring far into his memories. Kakashi nodded gravely.

"I should be up and running in about a week," he told them. "I estimate Zabuza will take just as long to retrieve his full strength. If we're lucky, we'll be able to run back to Konoha before he does. But I don't think so. So in the meantime, I'm going to train you all, so that we're sure to give him a real challenge when he shows up." _Unlikely. But it's better than doing nothing_.

"Really?" Uzumaki looked like her birthday had come early.

"Really," he acquiesced, and the astonishment in her face made him want to cringe.

He still didn't know how to go about the girl. His technique of avoiding-and-ignoring-until-it-disappears wasn't working on her. If she had inherited anything from her parents, it was their stubbornness. Everywhere he turned, she was there, trying to get his attention. Maybe Haruno was right, and he was just being childish.

He scowled at the thought. No, she wasn't. She didn't know anything about him or about her own teammate. Not really. She could play psychologist if she wanted, but he wasn't about to enter her little game.

"Well, get out of here," he mumbled, all trace of his good mood vanished. "We'll start tomorrow. I need to sleep."

They obeyed, one after the other like ducklings. The door closed softly behind them.

Kakashi stared at the ceiling. It was old, the off-white paint flaking at the edges. There were cracks in the walls and heat webs floating in the corners. A very boring ceiling. He wanted to turn to his side, but he doubted his back would appreciate it. He wasn't used to sleeping lying flat. Harder to get up quickly if something happened. No, it was much better to be on his side, with a kunai in hand. He sighed.

All in all, he felt confused, and since he never knew how to deal well with confusion, that meant

he was angry. He wanted to yell at his students, and he didn't know why. He wanted to trigger Sasuke into screaming all the hatred he had inside him. He wanted Haruno to get off her high horse and hit the ground hard. He wanted to shake Uzumaki until she stopped smiling, until she got mad, until she _snapped_. And _he didn't know why_.

They had acted exemplarily during the mission. They had protected each other, and even if Sasuke and Uzumaki had disobeyed him, it had been for the right reasons. It had been the kind of disobedience Minato would have approved of. They had held their own against an A-ranked criminal—he still had to get a report on how exactly they had done it—and they had found a secure location for him. Or at least, as secure as they could.

What was he supposed to be feeling? Asuma would know. Asuma probably didn't have any trouble training the next generation of Ino-Shika-Chou. Kurenai would take one look at him and report him to the Hokage for neglect, no matter that they were long-time friends. Gai… He didn't even want to think about Gai's response in this situation. Gai had perfect, no-strings-attached genin. He envied Gai.

He slept very little that day, despite his exhaustion. At one point in the evening, Tsunami came back to bring him dinner and help him to the bathroom. Thankfully, he didn't need help washing himself or using the loo. He managed to stand up for the ten minutes it took him to do his ablutions and thought it probable that he wood be able to walk for a little longer the next day. By the time restless sleep took him, dawn had already come. He woke up only an hour later.

He made himself go down the stairs on his own, leaning heavily on the railing. He could feel how much of a bad idea pushing himself so soon was, but he hated being weak. And he did arrive in the already animated kitch standing on his own two feet. He knew it would boost his team's morale.

Sasuke, Haruno, Tsunami, and the kid from the picture were here. He supposed Tazuna was still resting, and Uzumaki as well. The girl did seem like the type who never woke up easy.

Haruno and Tsunami were engaged in a soft-spoken conversation about the country. Sasuke was in the middle in a glaring contest with the kid—Inari, he remembered from Tsunami's words the previous evening. Her son, and Tazuna's grandchild. He couldn't be more than nine or ten. His eyes looked much older, however, when Kakashi's met them. The anger in them was deeply rooted and spoke of a history of issues, of which his mother probably didn't know the real extent.

"Good morning," Kakashi announced. The attention of everyone present promptly turned to him. At the same time, Haruno and Sasuke lost a lot of the tension in their shoulders when they saw him standing. They all murmured their greetings. He nodded and took his place quickly around the table, hiding the stiffness of his movements. His students didn't seem to notice, but Tsunami gave him an exasperated look.

Uzumaki appeared half an hour later. She was still in her pajamas, green cargo shorts and a hole-y T-shirt that was probably meant for someone twice her size. Mumbling incoherently and rubbing her fingers against her eyes, she walked towards Haruno. She was about to sit down next to the other girl when tension suddenly filled the room.

No one said a word. But Sasuke had stopped wishing death on Inari-kun and was looking at the scene with an inscrutable look. Uzumaki was petrified, her eyes wide open and staring at her friend. Haruno, on the other hand, continued to eat impassively, as if no one was standing behind her shoulder and gaping at her. When she finished her plate, she stood up and cleaned her side of the table. Then she walked out.

Kakashi took in Uzumaki's defeated sag and Sasuke's quiet groan. There was something happening here that he didn't understand. The team dynamics had shifted, and he knew it had something to do with whatever he had missed between the moment he'd gone after Zabuza and Uzumaki and Sasuke's attempt to come to his help. Sighing internally, he resolved to ask Sasuke for a full report later in the day. He doubted Haruno would be willing to talk courteously, or even talk at all. And having a private chat with Uzumaki was out of the question.

"Meet me outside," he said once they were all finished eating. His students peered at him half-heartedly. "Tell Haruno. Your training begins in five minutes, and you don't want to know what'll happen to you if one of you is late." Whatever kind of teenage drama was going on between the three of them, he'd be damned if it ended up screwing with their team work. Now that he had received the proverbial slap in the face and recognized his mistakes, he wasn't about to forget again. To mark his words, he used the body flicker to get out of the room.

He regretted it immediately, of course. But it took him less than a minute to shake off the dizziness, and by that time only Sasuke had followed suit, looking for Haruno.

Uzumaki walked outside looking sullenly at the ground, dragging her feet. He didn't comment. He always wanted to comment on everything the girl did— _stand up straight don't speak so loud_ _pay attention to your surroundings don't laugh don't cry i'm so sorry why did you have to be born_ —which was probably the reason he never did.

Tazuna's house was lovely, from the outside. It was a wooden structure holding itself perilously atop the sea. Thin morning mist hid the ocean's glint from view, but the sound of waves crashing again and again against rock and sand still reached him. For a second he let himself enjoy the chill and the quietness, the feel of droplets hanging wetly to his clothes and skin. The salt in his nose.

Sasuke walked out of the house, Haruno following him. Kakashi gestured for them to follow him and traced a path through the trees, until he reached a tiny opening, not big enough to be called a clearing, but perfect for what he had in mind.

He turned to his genin. They were looking around with little interest, he noted. Uzumaki had bags under her eyes, and although Haruno hid it well, he could tell she was high on anger and frustration. Sasuke just looked uncomfortable and irritated.

"So, today we're going to train in chakra control," he said. He waited, but none of them reacted. He held back a groan. "Can any of you tell me _why_ it's important to have control of your chakra?"

For a long few seconds, it seemed his last words were going to get as little response as his first. But finally, Haruno opened her mouth, ever-the-bookworm.

"Chakra control matters because being conscious of one's chakra capacity, and how much chakra to put into techniques can make the difference between life and death."

Kakashi nodded approvingly. "That's right. Knowing your own limits can save your life one day. But that's not all there is to it." This got her interest, all right. "In your life you'll see a lot of shinobi judge their enemies based on their chakra reserves alone, thinking that the greater the reserves, the stronger the shinobi, and vice-versa. This is a mistake I want all of you to avoid."

Uzumaki grimaced in thought. "But doesn't a bigger chakra reserve mean bigger and more dangerous techniques? Also better stamina?"

"Not at all." He paused, trying to come with a clear explanation. Normally he wouldn't encourage the girl's laziness when it came to theory, but time was a luxury they couldn't afford. "Certainly you will have more natural stamina if you have a bigger-than-average chakra capacity at your disposal. But stamina is just like everything else: you can train it, and if you don't, you'll lose it."

He kicked a twig up and caught it in his hand. Ignoring his students' envious glares, he started playing with it, twirling it between the fingers of his right hand and thinking heavily on his next words. This was a lesson—his first, really—that he never wanted them to forget. Too many good shinobi had, and had payed for it with their lives.

"As for your assumption that more chakra means more dangerous techniques… that is wrong as well. While some highly-destructive techniques demand a lot of power, 'danger' isn't defined by how big of a crater your create when you unleash a jutsu. Smaller, more surgical techniques can be just as deadly, and are a _lot_ less demanding. Think about that boy we met two days ago. With only two skillfully thrown senbon, he managed to take out Zabuza, something we had fruitlessly been trying to do for the better part of an hour. And he didn't use any chakra to do it."

He saw their faces darken at the mention of the hunter-nin who had duped them. Yes, being faced with pure talent for the first time would do that to your ego. He was still nursing the sting left by his own defeat against Hyuuga Hizashi so many years ago.

"Furthermore," he added just so he could see their faces crumble more, "big reserves are usually a lot harder to control than small ones. So you see, you can't ever judge someone's skills based on their power capacity alone. Only on how well they use it."

"Shit, I hope I don't have a lot of chakra," Uzumaki said with worry in her tone.

Kakashi wanted to laugh. She probably had more or less twice their combined reserves, and would have a hard time learning to control any of it with her father's seal messing with her chakra coils. He expected her to suck the most at this training. But, as usual, he said nothing.

"Chakra control isn't all you need to learn as a shinobi, of course, but it is essential. It can save your life and your mission. Chakra exhaustion, when too severe, can kill you. Once you've all learned to recognize its symptoms, you'll be able to judge whether you should or shouldn't use that one last technique. There's no point in beating one opponent if you don't have enough juice to escape the others."

He had their complete attention now. Uzumaki and Sasuke looked faintly scared, as they should be. Haruno, however, was completely calm. But then again, she probably was leaps and bounds ahead of her teammates in this. The fact that she had channelled enough chakra into her foot to damage a two-ton rock while fighting _him_ was more than enough proof. If she had figured this on her own, the tree-walking exercise wouldn't challenge her at all.

She had said she wanted to be like Tsunade of the Sannin, he remembered suddenly. When he had made them introduce themselves on that first day. She had probably spent a lot of time learning all she could about her idol and trying to emulate what she found. It seemed he had once again underestimated her devotion.

This was the second time. He wouldn't forget again.

Kakashi formed the ram seal with his hands and gathered a little chakra into the soles of his feet. He didn't need to use the basic molding seal anymore, but this was what they were taught at the Academy. And he liked demonstrations better than words. After a second, he approached a tree and calmly walked up his flank. He was using more chakra to hold his body in place against gravity, but they didn't need to know that yet. Falling head-first on the first try was as good a motivator as any.

Once he reached a high and sturdy branch, he walked on it upside-down. Looking down, he noticed all of his students gaping at him with wonder in their eyes. Ah, rookies.

"This is one of the exercises a lot of shinobi use to learn to control their chakra. By focusing it into your feet, you can make them stick to any surface." He threw three kunai at the ground, one in front of each of them. "I want all of you to be able to do this by the end of this week.

Mark your progress with the kunai. Good luck." He lifted himself onto the branch painfully, and took out his book. He wouldn't read it immediately, but it helped to keep up appearances. His students would probably freak out if they noticed too much of a change in his attitude. His newfound willingness to train them was already hard enough to swallow, at least for the girls.

As he had thought, Uzumaki immediately took off for the nearest tree, taking barely ten seconds to mold her chakra. This wasn't enough by any strength of the imagination, not for her. As soon as her foot hit the bark, it exploded, and she was expelled back. She landed roughly on her back and sputtered indignantly.

Sasuke was a sight better. But then again, the boy already had some training in elemental techniques thanks to his clan—and, no doubt, Itachi's helpful hand. Raw chakra control wasn't that different. Eventually, though, his feet stopped sticking to the trunk. He slipped, flailing around until he managed to scrap the bark with his kunai as high as he could, before tumbling down gracelessly. He scowled at the tree like it had just insulted him personally.

"Well, that wasn't so difficult," Haruno said. She was sitting on the highest branch of the tree right at Kakashi's left, smiling cockily at her teammates. She sobered once Uzumaki looked up and hesitantly tried to smile back.

It was impressive that she had managed it right away, Kakashi had to admit. She had obviously never thought to use her chakra like this before. But since she had already cleared the next

step, which was to channel it in a destructive way… maybe he should have expected it.

He let her gloat for a few minutes more. Arrogance was decidedly a flaw all his students shared in some way. He jumped down his own tree once he had observed them enough—the jostling caused another bout of fatigue to spread through his limbs, this one harder to ignore.

"Well, I'm out," he told them. "Good luck, etc." He wanted to body-flick out of their view, but his legs were already bucking under his weight. Best not to use any more techniques today. When he crossed the house's threshold, Tsunami gave him a knowing look. The only reason he didn't flip her off was because he was grateful that she had given him her own room. He wondered where she was sleeping. Probably with her son.

Said kid was watching him when he walked up the stairs—slowly, and with a rather embarrassing number of pauses between steps. What Kakashi supposed was his bedroom door was ajar. Inari's dark eyes could be seen in the small space, following his movements. The boy snapped the door shut when he saw Kakashi had noticed him.

Kakashi didn't give it too much thought. There was a familiar sense of tragedy in the household that he didn't really want to pry into. Whatever was making the boy so uncomfortable with their presence wasn't any of his concern. He already had three kids to keep alive and relatively healthy.

He wanted to moan. He still had no idea how to go about fixing what he must have destroyed in the last few months. Fortunately, it seemed his students were just as bent on fixing themselves.

He hadn't been lying on his bed for more than an hour minutes when someone knocked on his door. He instantly knew it couldn't be Tsunami. The woman had a much quieter knock. Sure enough, when he made a vaguely agreeing sound, the door was pushed open and Haruno entered.

For a few moments, she didn't say anything. She sat down in front of him with her legs and arms crossed and watched him imperiously, as if she wanted him to confess to something. It would have been more impressive if she wasn't _twelve_.

"Yes?" he asked tiredly when he recognized that she wasn't going to take the first step here. Oh, how he hated that he couldn't be bothered beating some respect into them.

The girl huffed with impatience. "I'm done with the tree-walking exercise. You saw it. Give me something else to do."

 _Give me something else to do_ , _please_ , he wanted to answer. But since he wasn't a child andhe wasn't about to let the girl goad him into anything, as she loved to do, he stayed polite. "Try the same thing on water. You know how to stick to hard surfaces. Water is a little more tricky. You have to adapt your chakra to follow its flow, or you'll sink."

"You can walk on _water_?" she said, incredulous.

"Yes. It's one of the basics. Every shinobi can do it."

She shook her head, annoyed. "Why did they never teach us that at the Academy, then?"

"They're considered genin-level exercises. It's better to try it once you've mastered some basic ninjutsu, like the replacement technique, and you already have a grasp on your chakra. Have you done the leaf-sticking exercise?" he asked. She nodded. "Yeah, so they still teach it. It's the easiest one. It's better not to tap too quickly into your reserves when you don't know how big they are."

Haruno looked at the floor, making the scary face she always did when she was thinking very hard about something. He considered leaving her to it and taking out Icha Icha, regardless of her presence. Reading soft porn in his teenage female student's presence was rather tasteless, but he was so far past caring he couldn't even muster the energy to think about it. Besides, she was a genin. An adult in their village's laws.

He was about to take out the book, more to have something to do than anything else, when her voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Why can't Naruto make herself stick to the tree at all?"

He looked at her. She wasn't meeting his eyes, instead glaring at her bare knees as if she wanted to make them disappear. She blushed slightly under his scrutiny.

"I've been watching her and Sasuke try to get the hang of it," she explained. "Sasuke can climb a few meters before his control slips, but Naruto can't at all. It's like she's unleashing way too much chakra at once, which isn't possible, because I've done this before and it took me _months_ before I could gather enough energy to damage anything, and yet she's ripping the bark off the trees like it's nothing." Her voice wavered, and she risked a quick look in his direction. "Is there something wrong with her chakra?"

"She probably has more raw power than anyone here," he replied evenly. "Even more than Sasuke, who has naturally large reserves because of his clan's eye technique." Her eyes flicked to his headband, but he ignored it. "Controlling small amounts of it at once is where the difficulty lies for her. You, on the other hand, only have small reserves. Molding large quantities of chakra is challenging. I've been here, since I don't have much stamina myself. You chakra will grow as you continue to train, but not by much."

He thought she might want to be reassured that it wouldn't make her a bad kunoichi, but she took his words without surprise. She simply peered at him inquisitively.

"Yeah, that makes sense," she admitted. "But _is_ there something wrong with her chakra, besides the fact that she has a lot of it?"

He tensed, and she saw it. _Damn it_ , he thought, noticing the way her mouths struggled not to curl in satisfaction. "What makes you think so?" he asked.

"Two days ago, she had a kunai through her hands. A few hours later the wound had already closed, and now there's not even a scar left. Is it a bloodline thing?"

"Who knows." He waved at the door. "Maybe you should ask her."

She scowled. "And maybe you should tell us why you hate her so much," she snapped back.

Kakashi was sorely tempted to tell her to get the stick out of her ass before it pierced her _brain_ , but then he realized something. Oh.

 _Oh_.

Haruno was so very protective of Uzumaki. It was obvious in every single way they interacted. She had already accused Kakashi—rightly so—of favoritism, and had seem especially incensed by the fact that he was cold to Uzumaki. She scolded her teammate gently during missions, corrected her stances in training, worried about her like a mother hen. He hadn't thought much of it at first, except that she would have one hell of a time trying to protect Uzumaki from all harm, and that the other girl was probably already way too used to being shunned to care for such attention. He had noticed how they all acted earlier, and had thought that Haruno was just mad for some reason and taking it out on everyone indifferently. But now he wondered.

What could have caused such a rift between his students that _Haruno_ would refuse to talk to

 _Uzumaki_?

"What happened between you and her?" he asked, just to see how she would react.

"Why do _you_ care?" she retorted suspiciously.

She still cared, that was a given. The fact that she had come to ask about Uzumaki's troubles with training despite the fact that she refused to talk to the girl herself showed it loud and clear.

He surprised himself by how relieved he was at the thought. Despite how little he had wanted to involve himself in his team, he had always liked the good dynamics they had. He hadn't payed it much attention at first. They had reminded him too much of his own with Rin and Obito, and he had been certain they would never be able to bridge the gaps between them. Like he hadn't been able to until it was already too late.

But they had. They weren't perfect, and they had so many issues to work through before they could hope to be that he grew dizzy just thinking about it, but there was something here that he could work on. Or could have, if he had done his job right. Now he wasn't so sure.

"I don't enjoy having a bunch of broody teenagers as students," he told her dryly. "I seem to remember you telling me shinobi were supposed to act like adults not so long ago."

Haruno turned an angry red. She could act tough and unapologetic all she wanted when her teammates weren't around to see her, but the reminder of that day still got her every time.

"I'm going to take a wild guess here and say that _something_ must have happened to make the three of you return to early childhood," Kakashi continued. "And that it probably happened while I was away fighting Zabuza. I haven't gotten a report for that yet anyway, so out with it. It's an order."

He could almost see the desire to tell him to fuck off warring against her desire to do her duty. Finally, the latter won.

"I won't be able to tell you much, since I was unconscious for most of it," she answered.

This… wasn't what he had expected. "What happened?"

She bristled. "Sasuke knocked me out," she said shortly. And judging by her face and the way her nails were digging into her own arms, he understood that they were getting at the crux of the matter.

He waited, but she said nothing else. It took a lot of self-discipline not to let out an exasperated sigh. He wasn't paid nearly enough to deal with teenagers.

" _Why_ did he knock you out?" he asked patiently. _And why are you angry at Uzumaki, then,_ _instead of him?_

Her nails dug, and dug, and dug, until they drew blood. Only then did she seem to notice she was hurting herself, and wiped away the tiny red drops from her skin.

"They were about to help you instead of staying with me and Tazuna, like you ordered. I tried to stop them, and then Sasuke knocked me out. That's all I know. You'll have to ask them for the rest." Then she closed her hands on her knees and looked down resolutely, waiting to be dismissed.

Kakashi looked at her attentively. She was trying very hard not to let her emotions slip past the angry mask she wore, and she was doing a pretty good job of it. But he wasn't about to let her go yet. There was more to this story.

"You're lying," he said.

She growled low in her throat, "I am _not_. I don't know what Sasuke and Naruto told you-"

"They haven't told me anything. I can tell you're lying, that's all." _She's embarrassed about_ _something_ , he thought, _and not about being knocked out_. She acted exactly like she had afterhe had beaten her that day, weeks ago. Her emotions were rippling beneath her flesh, ready to come out. He could almost see the angry insults she was repressing. They were here in her eyes, alongside wet, angry tears.

Haruno huffed, and crossed her arms again, and fidgeted under his gaze.

"What exactly happened, once I left you all with Tazuna?" Kakashi asked. "And don't give me the same answer with different words. I want to know how you all acted, what you said. How you felt."

She looked at him as if she had never seen him before. He supposed he couldn't fault her for that. He hadn't been very keen on getting to know them, least of all their feelings. But this mattered. He could already see the cracks forming between the members of his team, and he wanted to fix what he could. He had acted like an idiot, but Obito's words still rang true in his

ears. Teamwork had been what he had based all his life on since his friend had died. He _would_ salvage his students' relationship.

He knew too well the consequences of not trusting your partners enough.

Haruno didn't understand any of this, evidently. She probably thought he wanted to mock her, or was doing this because he was bored, and he didn't wish to disabuse her of this notion. But he couldn't let the wounds fester any more than they already had.

God, what a mess.

"I guess I-" she began, and then stopped. She bit her lips, shifted on her behind, extending her legs in front of her. Nervousness was painted all over her in broad, colorful strokes. "I might have panicked a little."

"Explain," Kakashi said shortly. She gave him her best glare, but it wasn't enough to faze him. She still had a long way to go before he recognized her in that respect.

"I told Naruto and Sasuke what you told us. That we had to stay together and away from you and Zabuza, and I was _right_ ," she spat out the last word as if it had burned her, "but they didn't listen. So then I- I told them the truth. That's all."

"What truth?"

"That you didn't care anyway. That you had never cared about us, and it wasn't our job to protect you, because you're supposed to protect us. And I told Naruto that-"

She stopped. Kakashi didn't say anything. Their eyes met, and inside hers he could see months of resentment and dislike—feel it on his skin like a brand. Like the curse inside Obito's Sharingan and the pain it left in him every time.

"I told her that you hated her," she said. "I told her that- that if the roles were reversed, you would probably let her die. That she shouldn't care about someone like you, let alone risk her life for you. It's true," she added, not bothering to point dramatically in his direction. The accusation in her voice was enough. "Don't you dare try and deny it."

There were a million things he wanted to say to that. He wanted to tell her that she didn't know the first thing about him and the life he had lived. He wanted to tell her that the girl she was defending so ardently was a _monster_. That she had come to this world covered in the blood of dozens and had dragged the last of his family to the grave before she had let out her first scream. That she was forever tainted, that she was a goddamn bomb waiting to explode. That none of them could know when the Kyuubi would have enough of its prison. All the words and all the excuses died in his throat before they could come out. They weren't the truth. They weren't all of the truth.

The person Kakashi hated the most was a twelve-year-old girl with blond hair and blue eyes who dressed in orange clothes and talked too much. But it wasn't because of the beast sleeping inside her. Oh, if only it was because of the fox.

"And how did you feel, when you said all this?" he asked very quietly.

Haruno looked at the window. It was open to let the wind in, pale curtains swaying gently. White sunlight came through; it reflected off the cracked walls and they both basked in it. Outside, birds were chirping, oblivious.

"I felt terrified," she admitted after a moment. "I felt like they were going to run to their death and this would be the last time I saw them. I didn't care about you, or Tazuna, or that Zabuza might come at us anyway. I said all these awful things to Naruto just because I was too scared to do anything, and I wanted to scare her and make her stay with me." She swallowed. "I was so useless when the Demon Brothers attacked us. I stood there and I couldn't move and-Naruto almost got killed. Sasuke saved her, and then she saved me, and I've been spending my nights awake thinking, 'God, what if the kunai _had_ been poisoned?' 'What if this man had hit her in the stomach, or the head, instead of her hand'-" she stopped. Took a deep breath. "She could be dead. All because I was too scared to move. So I didn't want her to go, and it had nothing to do with obeying orders and everything to do with me acting like a little girl instead of a shinobi."

Kakashi looked at her for a long time after this.

Haruno, he was coming to realize, was by far the most mature genin he had ever seen. If it had been Sasuke sitting in front of him, he had no doubt that the boy would have outright refused criticism. Even if he had accepted it, he would never have been capable of the level of self-awareness Haruno was demonstrating. He could not remember one twelve-year-old, boy or girl, ever admitting their feelings with such clarity. Oh, certainly, the geniuses could analyze their actions and realize their faults. They could be the greatest tacticians on the field and still have the emotional maturity of toddlers. _Like me_ , he couldn't help but think. He had very much been the last one to understand social or emotional cues—a fact which had made Minato look at him in pity and concern more than once.

But Haruno was different. She was, apparently, constantly analyzing herself and her surroundings. Factual intelligence and emotional responses alike came to her naturally. She noticed and thought about everything—from her own weaknesses to her friends' troubles with training to Kakashi's own reactions, all at once. It was no wonder she seemed to break under the pressure sometimes, and took it out via anger and physical violence. But even then, even when she finally cracked, it was always at him. Never at her friends, not when she could control it. She always directed the anger toward someone who could withstand it—someone who _deserved_ it.

And this was what was gnawing at her. She had lost it on the battlefield and let the situation overwhelm her, and while she had stated nothing but what she thought to be the truth, she had done so in a way that had probably deeply hurt someone she cared about. She couldn't deal with this, and she couldn't admit that she had been wrong. Because she hadn't, not entirely.

She was something he had never encountered before. She wasn't a genius in the sense that she wasn't conscious of how she took in the information and adapted to it. He didn't think it would be a good idea to try and harness that particular set of skills intentionally, either; she would probably hurt herself doing it, or lose it entirely. But she needed to find a way to deal

with the overload—and to grow into her confidence. For the moment, her mind made her vulnerable, too prone to overwhelming empathy. Panic, if she picked up on it, must be terrible for her.

He didn't enjoy it, but this was a case where he had to deliver a nice dose of tough love. This would probably alienate her even further, but he had made his decision. He didn't care if his students never grew to like him. As long as they watched each other's back and acted like a _team_.

"So the reason you're currently moping around like someone just killed your pet goldfish is because you can't deal with being a shinobi," Kakashi said.

"You can't just put it like that," she protested, on a tone that said _fuck you_ more loudly than anything he had ever heard.

"Oh, but I can." She was baring her teeth at him in a fashion she had borrowed from Uzumaki, and he considered showing his Sharingan to intimidate her. But it would be overkill for this situation. Besides, he was way too low on chakra to play around. "You did exactly what any self-respecting ninja _shouldn't_ do. You let yourself be overwhelmed by panic so much that you forgot not only your orders, but also your comrades. And you actively tried to hurt them."

"I never raised a finger on them!"

"Are you really so naive as to think that only physical blows bear power? It doesn't matter whether you did it with your hands or your words, you hurt your teammate. And now you're sulking, like the child you're trying so hard to pretend you're not, and refusing to talk to her. I can't say even I have stooped that low." It was a lie. She didn't need to know that, though.

Her face grew crimson with anger, and finally, she jerked herself out of the oscillating tension she had been stuck in for the whole of their conversation. "Don't you _fucking_ dare act like you're one to give me lessons where Naruto's concerned," she yelled in his face, reaching out to grab his collar and pull him close. "You _hate_ her! You've acted like a complete prick toward her ever since you met her, you won't even _talk_ to her because apparently she's just that insignificant in your eyes! If anyone here is to blame for hurting her, it's _you._ " There was enough venom in the way she said 'you' that Kakashi could feel a shiver run up his back, leaving a trail of goosebumps over his healing skin.

"You're right," he answered.

This made her inhale sharply, and relax her hold on him somewhat. "What," she said. Her mouth was gaping.

"I do hate her," Kakashi said, like this was a normal thing, like he wasn't breaking three different laws and his promise to the Hokage. He shrugged Haruno's hand off him and sat up straighter, looking her in the eyes. "But I would never let her, or any of you, die on my watch. Not as long as I can breathe."

"But you-"

"Sakura," he cut. She closed her mouth at once, surprised by his use of her first name. "Do you remember what I told you when I passed your team?"

"Never abandon your comrades," she answered immediately. It made her flush, but her gaze never strayed from his.

"Exactly. I wasn't kidding then, and I'm not kidding now. As long as I can move, I will never stop protecting my comrades. In this case, you, Sasuke, and yes, even Uzumaki."

"Even though you hate her." She frowned.

Kakashi nodded. "Yes. Even though I hate her."

"I don't understand."

"I don't expect you to."

She watched him with narrowed eyes, looking like she was trying to figure out a particularly annoying puzzle. After a minute of silent glaring from them both, she talked again.

"I don't suppose you're willing to tell me why you hate her," she declared, shoulders sagging a little.

"Indeed," Kakashi replied easily. He had already said too much on the matter. At least he knew she wasn't the kind to gossip, and Sasuke either—since he was certain she would replay the whole conversation to him anyway.

"But how do I trust you, then?" she asked, and there was a desperate edge to her voice that hadn't been here before. "How do I trust you _not_ to let your feelings get in the way of her safety? You let them get in the way of everything else."

Truly, Kakashi thought, Haru- _Sakura_ was a remarkable person. Here she was, just a slip of a girl, more advanced in control and theory than either of her teammates, reflecting on her own weaknesses. And instead of worrying about herself, she was trying to find out how to best help _them_. She was headstrong and too quick to come to her own conclusions about things, but hehad seldom seen a heart like hers. He could appreciate it, even if he was the one suffering from her temper.

When he had met team seven, he had expected Sasuke to be the one he would relate to the most. Tragic family history non-withstanding, he fit the mold: broody child genius, cursed with the Sharingan, an outcast in spite of the admiration he was given. But he found himself baffled at how much he understood the way Sakura worked, and how much she reminded him of himself when he had started leading squads. Stubborn, trusting his own instincts and not much else, unwilling to take shit from anyone, rank be damned. Except it had taken Obito's death for him to realize that he was going about everything the wrong way, and she was doing this on her own. She was definitely the glue holding team seven together.

He saw himself in her, and he also saw something he could—not _aspire_ to be. Not yet. She was too young, too raw. She could still turn away from the right path. But in a few years, and

with the right guidance… she could become someone every shinobi would look up to. She could be something incredible.

 _An excellent Hokage, maybe._ Sarutobi's wise-impish smile came back to him. _The old monkey probably saw that in her when he decided to put her here. I should never have underestimated her_.

"How do you want me to trust you?" she repeated, but without much hope, clearly considering his silence as the only answer she would get out of him.

"If you can't trust me about anything else…" he started. She looked at him sharply, and he hesitated. But he had to do this. As uncomfortable as this was for him, he _had_ to make his point clear. "No matter how I behave with her on a day-to-day basis, please believe me when I say that I would never let her come to harm. As long as I'm alive, so is she. You _can_ trust me on this."

She doubtlessly picked up on the seriousness in his voice and in his body-language, because she nodded once, and her lips thinned. She didn't say anything else, but she didn't leave, and he didn't dismiss her.

They sat together in silence for a very long time. As strange as this was in and of itself— Kakashi didn't think he had ever been able to spend more than five minutes alone with her without conflict exploding between them—the strangest thing was that it wasn't uncomfortable. Sakura was deep in thought, and Kakashi simply took the time to register everything he had just learned about his student.

He found himself once again wincing at how badly he had screwed up. He had spent two months with them, every day, and yet he had still managed to neglect them enough not to realize the potential Sakura held. It made him wonder what he had missed about Sasuke and Uzumaki as well. Minato wouldn't have been proud of him.

But Minato wasn't here. All that was left was his daughter, and the ache the sight of her left in him every single day. Yes, his sensei would have hated what he had become. If only for the way he was treating his and Kushina's only legacy to this world.

He couldn't help it, though. This was beyond even his strength.

It was well into midday when Sakura finally moved from her position on the floor. Noise was coming from the stairs—the sounds of plates and cutlery hitting wood as the table for lunch was set, Uzumaki's strident voice yapping enthusiastically about one thing or another. It made Sakura hunch in on herself and her face darken with troubled thoughts. Kakashi wanted to tell her to grow a pair and talk to her friend. He didn't, in part because he was certain this would be considered rather sexist, and also because he had to trust that she could figure that out on her own. When Tsunami opened the door to bring Kakashi his lunch, the girl finally rose and took wobbly steps out of the room. Her legs, he was amused to notice, had fallen asleep.

The rest of the day went by slowly. He read his book, smiling at his favorite parts, trying to block out the occasional frustrated cries of his struggling students. He was satisfied to hear

Sakura yell a creative string of profanities in the direction of his window after she tried to walk on water for the first time and promptly sank. This never got old, he mused, turning a page of Icha Icha.

At the same time, he was preparing himself for another conversation he knew was coming. As the light started turning red and gold on and too dim for him to make out Jiraiya's words, he was thinking to the past.

He was thinking of the sound of stone cracking above him, of a firm hand pushing him out of harm's way. This sunset was forever imprinted into his memory. Light like flames in the blood pooling around Obito's crushed body. Rin's tears as she methodically ripped the Sharingan out of her friend's eye socket to place it into his own, and the promise he had made that day and that he would never, ever forget.

When Sasuke entered the bedroom with death in his eyes, Kakashi was ready.

x

Naruto gave up on the second day of training. After falling on her ass for what seemed to be the hundredth time, she let out a frustrated yell, threw her kunai at the unforgiving tree she was trying to climb, and watched it embedded itself into the trunk with no satisfaction. Then she turned around and walked into the forest.

"Tired, dead last?" Sasuke called from where he was sitting, panting harshly.

"Shut up," she answered angrily. He grunted, but let her go without another comment.

She walked for a few minutes without stopping, looking for a good spot to rest. She found a small clearing, far enough from the house that she thought no one would bother looking for her. Not that anyone would look for her anyway, since Sakura still wasn't speaking to her. Naruto scowled and dropped to the ground in a dry spot, lying flat on her back and closing her eyes.

She was tired like she had never been before, and she didn't understand why.

The tree-walking exercise Hatake was trying to teach them wasn't supposed to be this difficult. It was a simple exercise in chakra control. It wasn't supposed to drain her like it did. She had more stamina than Sasuke and Sakura, and yet they both managed to stand straight afterwards while she was barely able to breathe. Sasuke had made a lot of progress since they had started the day before—he could already run halfway up his tree before falling. But Naruto couldn't even make herself stick to the damn thing in the first place. No matter how much time she took to mold her chakra before trying, or how she kept trying to increase the amount of energy she was channelling into her feet, she just got thrown away and back onto her already-painful behind. It was infuriating.

 _Even the damn trees don't want me to touch them_ , she thought. And then she realized howpathetic that sounded, and she groaned at herself. She hated being this maudlin. It wasn't like her.

Maybe it did have something to do with the Kyuubi, though. Like when the Mist ninja had stabbed her with a poisoned kunai and she had healed in less than a day. Maybe the Fox was messing with her chakra because it was evil and that was what evil things did. It had to be boring to live inside her, after all. Even giant demon foxes had to get their kicks out of _something_.

The thought made her smile, and she spent a few minutes trying to imagine what it was like living inside her. How did that sealing business work anyway? And where was the damn seal in the first place? She had never noticed anything out of the ordinary anywhere on her body, except the marks on her cheeks, and she was almost sure those weren't seals. She didn't know much about sealing, since it wasn't taught at the Academy. All Iruka had ever told them was that it was very difficult, that most of the time shinobi simply used seals for storing things, and that anything more complicated than that had to be handmade by seal masters, who were very rare. She had stopped listening after that, but now she wondered if she should have payed more attention.

The seal used to contain the Kyuubi had to be kind of like a storage one. But she wasn't stupid enough to think it was as simple as the ones she had used before. The Fox was supposed to be a never-ending mass of pure chakra. How did one go about sealing a giant living demon into a tiny baby? It had to take some serious skill. The Fourth Hokage must have been very strong, she mused. No wonder he was hailed as a hero by the entire village. He must have been very, very loved, despite the shortness of his time as a leader. She had never met anyone who would talk badly of him. He was always lauded, always remembered with proud smiles and teary eyes. As a child, Naruto had imagined him with the serious face he had on the mountain and in her picture books, and dreamed of becoming like him.

Now, she wasn't so sure. She couldn't help the disappointment she felt every time he came to her mind since that night Mizuki had told her about the Kyuubi. He was a hero, and he had died to save the village, and he must have been a strong and lovely person for so many people to mourn him for so long. But he had sealed a monster inside her. He had chosen an innocent baby—a newborn with no parents to care—and he had condemned her.

She knew it was selfish of her to think like that. She didn't know what the demon's attack had been like. The Fourth probably had no choice and no time to think. He certainly hadn't _intentionally_ meant for her to become an outcast, and even if he had, it was a small price topay for the safety of a whole village. One little girl's happiness against the lives of thousands. Easy deal. But she couldn't help the resentment knotting her insides every time she looked at his face on the mountain and thought, 'if only you'd chosen someone else'.

 _This is stupid_ , Naruto decided. She was supposed to be taking a break from training and fromthe accusatory silence Sakura carried around her. Instead, she was thinking sad thoughts and not doing anything productive. She wasn't Sasuke, for God's sake. At least _he_ had a good reason to brood all the time.

"Hello," a voice said above her.

She let out a strangled cry and jumped to her feet in surprise, barely avoiding bumping into the other person. It took a few seconds for her to realize that there was no threat around, and that

the voice belonged to a girl her age who was looking at her strangely.

Embarrassed, Naruto lowered her guard. "Um, sorry about that," she said, scratching the back of her neck and trying to pretend she hadn't just made a complete fool of herself. If the bastard had been there, he would have been laughing at her.

"No need to apologize," the girl said, smiling at her. Naruto blushed. "I should have made my presence known."

She was very pretty, Naruto thought, choking out an answer that probably made absolutely no sense. Her jet black hair fell to her lower back without so much as a wayward strand. Her skin was pale, unblemished, her face attractive in a very old-fashioned way. With her traditional clothes and the way she kneeled, back straight and hands artfully crossed on her lap, she looked like something out of a centuries-old illustration. With her unkept blond hair and battered orange jumpsuit, Naruto suddenly felt very out of place.

"So, er. What's your name?" Naruto asked, trying to retrieve her usual confidence. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm Haku," the girl answered. "I was gathering some herbs and I saw that you weren't moving, so I was worried. I'm sorry I startled you."

"It's okay, I should have payed more attention. I'm Naruto, by the way."

Haku bowed slightly. "It's very nice to meet you."

An awkward silence followed, during which Haku stared at her and Naruto kept shooting her sidelong glances. Finally, the other girl talked again.

"What are you doing around here, Naruto-san?" she asked, voice politely curious.

Naruto pointed at her forehead protector and grinned. "I'm a shinobi on a very important mission! I was just taking a break from training."

"You must be very strong," Haku commented.

Naruto laughed nervously, warmth spreading through her like sunlight. She had never had anyone tell her that she was strong before, except Sakura. But that was because Sakura was —had been—her friend. To hear it from the mouth of a complete stranger was a very foreign but incredibly nice feeling.

"Yeah, you bet I am," she answered, feeling infinitely happier than she had a few minutes ago. Gone was her dark mood and the helplessness that had weighed her down. She took a peek at the basket Haku had dropped next to her and said, "Do you want me to help you with that?"

"Don't you have anything else to do?" Haku replied, eyebrows raising a little.

Naruto shook her head. "They can spare me for a while, I think. I'd like to help. I'm stuck in my training anyway, I need to figure out why before I start again or I'll never improve."

"That is very wise," Haku nodded thoughtfully, and then proceeded to explain to her the kinds of plants she was looking for. They were medicinal plants, she said, and she needed them because a friend of hers was sick. Sensing the worry in her voice, Naruto was glad she had offered her help. Someone as pretty and nice as Haku didn't deserve to be sad.

They plucked herbs together for a while, numb fingers digging in the snow, the silence only broken by Haku's voice explaining the properties of such-and-such type of crawling moss, the names of which Naruto didn't understand or try to remember. It was nice. There was no animosity between them, something Naruto wasn't used to. Haku didn't correct her about something every other minute like Sakura did, or try to goad her into arguing like Sasuke. She didn't ignore her either. It really was as if she didn't hold any judgment on Naruto at all, which was novel, to say the least. Naruto had never met someone who didn't already have an opinion about her.

"Aren't you scared?" Haku asked after a while. She was rummaging through the mud with careful hands, examining leaves and dirt and lichen. It was a little strange to see someone who dressed and acted as proper as she did dirtying her hands with no visible concern. She didn't even seem to notice the brownish wet stains on her clothes, or that she had several worms trashing in her basket.

"About what?" Naruto answered, looking up at her face with surprise.

"Being a girl and a ninja at the same time. It must be scary."

"Not really…" she frowned. Why would it be scary because she was a girl? Plenty of girls became ninja. Granted, there weren't as many girls as there were boys, even at the Academy, but that was probably because a lot of girls didn't like to fight. Maybe. That was what she had always thought anyway. "And I'm not scared of anything. I'm gonna become Hokage one day, you know. That means I'm going to be the strongest shinobi in the village."

"Can a girl become a Hokage?" Haku said, looking at her intently.

"What's the big deal with being a girl?" Naruto was starting to get a little annoyed.

"Nothing." Haku smiled, looking like she had just understood something. "I'm not used to meeting shinobi women, that's all. I always thought it was more of a man's job."

"Well, it's not," Naruto said shortly.

"Why do you wish to become strong, Naruto-san?"

Haku was looking at her again. Her eyes felt as though they were trying to vivisect her to see what made her tick. Naruto flushed a little under the intensity of her gaze—she always felt weak in the knees in front of pretty girls, and Haku was _very_ pretty. It was okay when they ignored her, because she could act like it hadn't happened, but Haku wasn't ignoring her. Haku looked like she really wanted to hear her answers, like she was _interested_ in what Naruto had to say. It made her heart beat a little faster and her words stumble on each other in her mouth. She swallowed.

"I- um. I want to become strong, really strong. Because then everyone will have to respect me and acknowledge me." She felt like a fool, saying this, even though she had said it many times before with no problem. But Haku just smiled at her a little sadly.

"I think real strength comes to you when you protect what you value the most," Haku said. Her voice was lower, all of a sudden. "I think when you try to protect the people you love, no matter what happens, no matter how impossible or difficult it may seem… this is when you become really strong."

 _She looks so lonely_ , Naruto thought. Haku's face was shadowed by a few strands of her herbeautiful hair. Sitting here with dirty hands and a forlorn look in her eyes… she looked desperately, achingly lonely.

Even as she realized this, Naruto was thinking on the other girl's words. She was remembering the paralyzing fear that had taken her when the Demon Brothers had attacked them, and then again when Sasuke had looked like he had given up and Hatake had been taken by Zabuza's water prison. She recalled how every time she had made her body move to protect them, against the terror and the pain. Her hand tingled with the memory of the kunai tearing into her flesh and the poison crawling up her bloodstream.

"Yeah," she said after a while. "I think you're right."

Haku's smile was a little more sincere, a little less distant.

The both of them worked in silence after that. Naruto was sure she wasn't giving the right plants to Haku half of the time, but the other girl never said anything. She simply thanked her and continued her own search through the mud and the snow. It lasted until the sky grew a dark purplish red and the elongated shadows prevented them from seeing each other's faces. There was no noise at all; the insects had died already in the cool fall rains, and now their larvae were silent under the ground, waiting for spring to arrive. Naruto liked winter. She didn't enjoy the cold or the rain, but she appreciated the silence and the white, blinding light. Everything seemed so much clearer when the snow melted. So much cleaner.

They said their goodbyes collectedly. Naruto felt a little sad that she was probably never going to see the other girl again—she was only here for a week, after all, and then she would be back in Konoha where she belonged. If presumed-alive Zabuza and his hunter-nin companion didn't kill her first. Watching Haku's back as she walked away, Naruto spared a thought for the girl's sick friend, and hoped for her sake that he got better soon.

Sasuke was still battling his tree when she returned. He gave her a questioning glance, but she didn't say anything, simply started trying to climb her own tree again. Unsurprisingly, she failed. It didn't bring her mood down, though. Her conversation with Haku was still fresh on her mind, and she smiled even as she fell to the ground. Strength wasn't measured by how many meters you could climb with chakra-enhanced feet. Strength only mattered when you were trying to help other people.

That didn't prevent her from giving Sasuke the finger when he laughed at her from his spot on the lowest branch of his tree.

The evening went much the same as it had for the past few days. Sakura chatted happily with Tsunami, ignoring them, although Naruto knew that she still spoke to Sasuke civilly. It was just Naruto she refused to look at or talk to, even though Sasuke had been the one to knock her out. If she had known her friend would react like this, Naruto wouldn't have let him do it, no matter how pressing the situation had been. She couldn't help the fear that took over her every time she let herself thought about the fact that their friendship was probably over.

She had tried to apologize. When they had arrived at Tazuna's house and Sakura had woken up, and then again when Hatake had regained consciousness, and once more when he had left them to train by themselves the day before. But Sakura didn't answer her, didn't acknowledge her words—exactly like Hatake himself. Exactly as she had before they became a team. It frustrated Naruto, no less because she felt she hadn't done anything to deserve this, and also because while she refused to believe that Sakura was doing this to _hurt_ her… it was too familiar, too personal, and Sakura must know how much this was affecting her. Sakura was nursing her wounded pride, yes, but she was also making Naruto feel like crap for no good reason, and that didn't sit well with her at all.

The next day, Naruto and Sasuke took off for their training grounds as usual. Sakura didn't come with them. As she had already completed the exercise, they had both surmised that she must be training on her own, although they had no idea how. They hadn't had a sparring session since they had left Konoha. Considering the tense atmosphere between them, it was probably for the best. Naruto had taken more than her fair share of Sakura's chakra-enhanced kicks, and they fucking _hurt_.

This time, however, instead of rushing for the tree with renewed enthusiasm, Naruto sat down and thought. If Sasuke was surprised by this, he didn't say anything. He simply stretched and started his warm up routine. Sasuke wasn't a morning person, she had come to understand. He functioned readily enough, but his mood was always sourest before noon.

Naruto observed the tree she had been trying to climb for two days now. For some reason, even though she hadn't managed to make her foot stick to the trunk, almost all of the bark at the base had been ripped off. It happened every time. She would mold her chakra, focus as much of it as she could into the soles of her feet, and when she touched the tree, she got sent backwards and a piece of wood got ripped right off with her. It was as if the tree was _repelling_ her. Was there really something wrong with her chakra, after all?

Scratching absently at her nose, she thought again of the Kyuubi. Having something this big inside her must have been pretty traumatizing on her body as a baby. She already knew that it had given her some healing abilities, so maybe it had changed other things as well? _Could_ it change anything? As far as she knew, she was just the equivalent of a storage scroll for the beast. And stuff put into storage scrolls didn't have any effect on the scroll itself. But it couldn't be that simple, could it? Firstly, she was a human being, not a piece of paper. Surely that made a difference in the sealing process. And the Kyuubi wasn't just an inanimate thing either. It was basically an enormous chakra reserve with a mind and body of its own. How could you seal pure chakra?

Naruto frowned, and tried to remember everything she knew about chakra. She was unashamed to admit that it wasn't much. She had never paid attention to the theory at the

Academy—or 'boring lessons' as she called them—and barely ever showed up if there was no practical training. Sakura had tried to get her to read up on all the things she had missed, but had soon resigned herself to simply explaining what she could in the simplest terms. Naruto huffed. It wasn't her fault if she hated reading. Books made her head ache, and sometimes the words didn't make sense, and she always felt stupid and awkward when she tried to open one anyway. She liked learning by _doing_ things. She didn't see how that was such a bad thing, as long as she had people she trusted who could do all the brainy stuff for her. She didn't mind being the brawn of the equation, far from it.

Chakra was the energy shinobi used for all their techniques, she remembered. It was spiritual energy and physical energy mixed together (she didn't know what that meant, though). Lack of chakra could kill a person. It had its own circulatory system in the body…

"Are you gonna start training at one point or are you just gonna sit here all day?" Sasuke said, landing next to her with a pretentious little flip of his hair.

"Why don't you go and find someone else to bother, fuckface? I'm trying to think."

"Don't hurt yourself," he replied with a smirk.

"Just shut up, would you," she snapped, and formed a tiger hand seal. Her eyes were closed, but she heard him step away, mumbling under his breath. She didn't pay attention to what he was saying. He liked to hear himself talk anyway.

She could access her chakra better than she did a few days ago. It warmed her body and made her feel calmer, and when she concentrated very hard she could feel the energy making its way downward, from her belly to her hips to her thighs to her legs to her feet…

 _Stomach_ , she thought suddenly. Hadn't Sakura said this once? That the chakra reserve wassituated in the stomach. Mindful of her shaky control, Naruto dropped her hand seal and lifted the bottom of her jacket and shirt to peer at her belly.

A strangled yell escaped her.

"What's wrong with you?" Sasuke asked, more annoyed than he usually looked.

"Nothing," she said too loudly, covering herself again and trying to get up, only to miss falling flat on her face. "Just- bathroom break."

"You haven't even done anything yet."

"Well, I had too much orange juice at breakfast."

He made a disgusted face. "God, spare me the details."

Naruto mumbled, "Gladly," before taking off. Without thinking, she went to the same clearing where she had met Haku the day before. The girl wasn't there at the moment, unsurprisingly. She was probably busy taking care of her friend. Releasing a breath, Naruto took one last glance around to make sure she was alone, and then lifted her shirt again.

Nothing. All she could see was regular skin, covered in goosebumps from the cold. She scratched it for a few seconds, but nothing happened. No trace of the big tattoo she had glimpsed barely a minute ago.

"What the hell," she muttered.

Could it have been her imagination? She had been thinking way too much for the past few days, maybe she was starting to see things too. Her minds did strange things like that sometimes. Like when she had been sure she could read Sasuke's thoughts during the fight against Zabuza, or that one night she had been unable to sleep because of the smell of roasted meat that had permeated the air in her bedroom. She had wandered in the streets for hours trying to find the source of it, only to realize it came from a family having a barbecue party halfway across the village. Which was impossible.

Maybe it only appeared when she was using her chakra, she thought. That would explain why she had never seen it before. She didn't train naked, after all. She opened her jacket and lifted her shirt, holding it up by squeezing the fabric at her armpits, and then tried to feel for her chakra. Once she was moderately certain of her grip on it, she looked down.

It was there.

It really did look like a big tattoo, she wondered. Black ink running on her skin in a weird pattern, a thick spiral at the center surrounded by uneven symbols. The symbol-parts of the design didn't quite touch, though. There were two blank spots on the sides of the spiral, where their extremities were almost joined. They went up and downwards in eight different places. All in all, it looked like someone had put a paintbrush into a three-year-old's hand and told them to draw, and yet not exactly. There was an overall feeling of balance, of _intent_ , that could only signify one thing to her. That was definitely a seal.

Now that she had spent a whole five minutes examining it, it did remind her of the sort of gibberish that was drawn on explosive tags. Those were somewhat legible, though. They just looked like extremely stylized handwriting, with twirls and flourishes everywhere. The seal on her stomach meant nothing to her.

It must have meant something to the Fourth Hokage, however. Had he designed it himself? She didn't know much about the kind of knowledge he'd had. She knew the Third was nicknamed the Professor for the vast array of ninjutsu he possessed, and she seemed to remember something about the First and his ability to grow trees. But what had the Fourth specialized in? Was he a seal master? He must have been, she deduced, trying once again to make sense of the symbols. Sealing was supposed to be very difficult, and although she knew nothing about it, even she could tell that the seal on her stomach was a very complex one. It didn't look like something someone could just pull out of their ass, no matter how talented they were. This probably required long years of studies and a lot of dedication to the art. And even with those… the seal had cost the Fourth his life.

Naruto spent a long time looking at her own belly and fighting not to lose grip on her chakra flow. It baffled her to think that such a small thing—just ink strokes on tender skin—could be so dangerous. The Fourth, the most beloved and powerful Hokage Konoha had ever known, had

given up his life to create it. It could disappear from her skin so completely that in twelve years, she had never noticed it. And last but not least, it held a monster prisoner inside her. This, this drawing that was barely twenty centimeters wide, was the only thing standing between the Kyuubi and its freedom.

She found herself fascinated by the thought. _How does that work_ , she almost asked aloud, mouth gaping slightly. She poked at her stomach hesitantly, but nothing happened. How exactly did the seal hold the demon? Was the demon aware of its state? Had it kept its conscience through the sealing process? She shivered at the idea that all that malice was awake somewhere inside her, waiting for an occasion to escape. Oh, God. _Could_ it escape? Was that a possibility? No one had told her anything more than 'you have a giant demon fox stuck inside you and that's why everyone hates you'. No wonder all the villagers were afraid of her back home. She was starting to scare herself.

"Hey," she said, covering the seal with one hand. She closed her eyes and molded her chakra more forcefully, but no matter how much she focused, she couldn't feel any difference at all. Even the skin under her fingers felt completely normal. "Hey, you awake in there?"

Only silence answered her.

"Okay," she said through gritted teeth. "Well, if you're awake… um… don't try to take control of my body and kill everyone?" A pause. "Please?"

She almost broke her neck when a sudden noise to her right made her jump and slip on muddy snow. A bird had taken flight, emitting a loud caw.

" _Shit_ ," she breathed, heart beating, holding herself upright on weak legs. "I'm never doing this again."

She took one last look at her belly, but her near-fall had made her lose control of her chakra, and the seal had disappeared. Still a little shaken from the whole ordeal, she headed back to the training spot with small, wobbly steps. She was lost in her thoughts all the while.

It wasn't until she was standing before 'her' tree and looking at the off-white color of its wood, devoid of bark, that she understood. She slapped herself in the forehead.

"I'm using too much fucking chakra," she cried, and kicked a root. This only added a vivid pain in her big toe to the whole situation and made Sasuke snort like the asshole he was. She groaned, but didn't try to insult him. It was no one's fault that she was slow on the intake.

This time, when she started directing her chakra to her feet, she tried her best to use as little of it as she could—as opposed to what she had been doing until now. She chased all thoughts of the seal and the Kyuubi and the villagers out of her head. When she was sure she had channelled the smallest amount she could muster without losing her grip entirely, she crossed the few steps separating her from the tree and put her right foot on it. And then she climbed, gleeful.

She only managed three steps before she fell, but whatever. She'd take all the progress she

could.

"That was a life-changing bathroom break," Sasuke commented.

"You have no idea," she replied, grinning sheepishly.

She spent the rest of the day slowly and painstakingly taking more and more steps up the trunk. It was hard on her rather short patience, and all the sitting-around-and-meditating was making her antsy, but she was making a lot of progress. She didn't really understand why it was so much more difficult for her to gather small amounts of chakra than big ones, but she was proud to have come to a solution on her own. She would _not_ be dead weight on the team, no matter what Sasuke said. By the time evening came and the grey clouds had turned black, she had almost caught up with her teammate. The boy was watching her with critical eyes the whole time.

Naruto lifted herself onto the branch she had managed to reach and sighed, leaning back against the trunk. She heard Sasuke do the same on his side, and they both looked up at the sky. There were no stars that night—the weather had been too covered and too cold. Snow had fallen anew during the day, clinging to the soil and wetting their hair and hands. Naruto was reluctant to go back to the house, though. She didn't want to spend yet another evening trying fruitlessly to apologize for something she hadn't done—and feeling more and more desperate and unhappy as time went by and Sakura still refused to look at her.

"So how does that sealing business work anyway," she said, looking down at the ground.

"Why the hell are you asking me?" Sasuke replied, sounding surprised.

She scowled. "Well, it's not like I have anyone else to talk to lately, so don't take it too personally."

Sasuke snorted. It was one of his laugh-snorts, not the I-am-so-much-better-than-you type. Sasuke never laughed out loud the way she did, or even the way Sakura did, with little giggles and a hand poised against her mouth, so Naruto counted every one of his laugh-snorts as a personal victory. There, you jerk. See how funny I am.

"Why do you want to know about sealing?" Sasuke asked again. This time, his voice was a little softer.

"I dunno," Naruto said. She broke a twig off the branch she was sitting on and used it to draw her seal on the side of the trunk, the way she remembered it, away from his eyes. "Just curious."

"Hm."

He didn't say anything for a while. Naruto regretted that she couldn't see his face in the dark, because she would have loved to see his expression at this moment. Sasuke was a very secretive person, extremely touchy about a lot of things. It was difficult to make sense of him most of the time. She still remembered their encounter in the cemetery, and how it had made

her feel: closer to him, in a way, but also very, very far. Sasuke was the kind of person who always looked like he was about to go away and never come back. He was a lot like Hatake in that respect.

"I don't know a lot," he said finally. "It's hard to find information on this kind of stuff."

"Why?" She leaned over and backwards, trying to make out his eyes through the mess of wet hair and dirt streaks on his face.

"You're gonna fall, and then you're gonna annoy everyone to death with your whining," he warned, seeing her struggle with her balance for a second. She gave him her best glare. "And as for sealing, I don't know. It's really difficult and dangerous, so it's probably not the kinds of books they let genin access freely. I'm guessing you don't want to hear about boring explosive tags."

"Not really," she acquiesced.

"Yeah." He sighed, and squirmed a little to find a more comfortable position. "Anyway. What do you want to know about?"

She hesitated. "Sealing chakra inside something," she admitted, ill-at-ease.

"What, like, the seals they use for high priority messages? Where you have to have a certain chakra signature to read them?"

She shook her head. "More like, how do you seal a very large amount of chakra inside something? Or someone? And what are the consequences on the person you've sealed the chakra into?"

Sasuke leaned forward, looking at her with suspicious eyes. "That's very advanced sealing we're talking about here," he said. "Are you going to go and blow yourself up doing something stupid? Should I worry?"

"As if," Naruto tried to say in an even voice, but she didn't know if she did a very good job of it. Her heart was beating very fast. She had to tread carefully; Sasuke could outsmart her any time, and she didn't want him to start getting ideas. The Third had told her that she was exempt from the law that forced everyone else into silence, and that she could talk about the Kyuubi with whomever she wanted, but she hadn't made use of her privilege. She had no desire to see her fragile bounds with her team dissolve into dust.

Thankfully, Sasuke didn't seem to find her behavior all that weird. He probably thought this was a spur-of-the-moment kind of curiosity, like the one she'd had over the body-flicker technique a while ago. "Well," he said, a little awkwardly. "I know it's possible to seal a lot of chakra into an object and then use it, but you'd probably kill someone if you tried to seal a lot of chakra into them all at once. Maybe it can be done, but you'd have to be extremely knowledgeable about seals, so that the chakra doesn't end up destroying the body."

"Say it could happen, though," Naruto replied hastily. "Say someone manages to seal all that

chakra—a _lot_ of it—into someone without killing them. What d'you think would happen to the person?"

"I don't know, geez," Sasuke growled, scratching the back of his head. "More stamina, a lot of raw power. Shitty control, probably. Either a very long lifespan or a very short one, if the added chakra starts attacking the host body. Why do you need to know all that anyway?"

"Something someone said back home," she lied. Her mind was reeling, going over everything he had just told her. She knew she had more stamina than Sakura or Sasuke, and she knew that the shadow clone technique, which was supposed to be very chakra-demanding, didn't tire her until she had made at least fifty clones. So that probably meant that she had large reserves at her disposal. She wanted to cheer at the thought, but then she remembered Hatake's words about control, and how the amount of chakra didn't mean anything if you didn't know how to use it.

Naruto was more worried about the 'attacking the host body' part of Sasuke's answer. What did that mean, exactly? Could the Kyuubi's chakra start attacking her? Could it try to kill her? If she died, would it free the demon? There were too many questions, and none that she could ask her teammates. The logical thing to do would be to talk to Hatake, who was _definitely_ in the know, but Naruto couldn't do that. Not with the ghosts in the man's eyes every time he looked at her. Not with the way his voice resonated with hurt when he had to talk to her.

 _Maybe I can ask Iruka-sensei when we come home_ … But somehow she doubted that the manwould be able to answer her.

A few years ago, she would have immediately gone to the Third himself with her worries. They had become more distant the more she grew, however, and she couldn't count on his guards letting her through to his office now that she was officially a shinobi. They had been reluctant before she ever started attending the Academy, despite the old man's trust and patience. Now that she posed a threat, however small, she would probably have to go twice through the process of requesting an audience if she ever wanted to have a word with the Hokage in relative privacy. It made her throat ache and her eyes water, but she blinked the tears away. She should be used to people leaving her by now. The Third had a whole village to take care of. It would be very selfish of her to expect special treatment. Still, she would miss their talks…

"How do you know all this, if you can't get your hands on all the books?" she asked Sasuke.

The boy was silent for a moment. It took way too long for Naruto to realize that _obviously_ , his family must have taught him, and then she wanted to hit her head against the tree for her carelessness.

"Er, you don't have to answer if you don't-" she tried to amend, but he cut her off.

"It's fine," he said in a low voice. "My… my mom used to know a little about seals. I think she had a friend who was studying them and who died, so sometimes she would read all these books and teach us a little. I can't remember very well, I was young."

Naruto wanted to ask more about Sasuke's mom. She wanted to ask who 'us' was. It was the

second time that the boy had opened up about his family, and she couldn't help but think of how much happier he looked when he did. His eyes were pained, but there was a smile on his lips. She wanted to see him smile more. She could remember Sasuke from before his clan had died, very faintly—a little boy with a big mouth who strutted around like he owned the place—and she wondered if this version of him still lived somewhere behind the sullen façade he always put on.

She had never known exactly what happened to the Uchiha clan. She could still see the gates of their district, with the paint peeling off the tall fans that were their symbol, when she wandered around. But it was deserted, and she had never dared enter. She knew that they had been killed, but she didn't know by whom. All she could recall was that one day, Sasuke was acting like a proud little prick, and the next, he was looking at the world like he wanted to see it burn. He had come to class with dark circle beneath his eyes and his lips bitten raw for months.

She didn't say anything, though, because soon enough Sasuke's face closed once more and all hint of happiness and peace left him.

"We should head back," he told her.

"Yeah," she answered. There was a tightness in her chest that she couldn't explain. It made it hard for her to breathe, and it made her want to scream, and it weighed on her like hail on the back of a traveller. It felt like fire and ice at the same time.

It disappeared once Sasuke stopped looking at her.

Naruto didn't feel the rest of the week go by.

Their routine mostly stayed the same. Sasuke completed his training before she did, so Hatake sent him to accompany Tazuna at the construction site—not to help him, but to keep an eye on any possible threat. Zabuza, if he was indeed alive, must be close to recovery by now. This would have scared Naruto, if not for the fact that Hatake was getting better as well, and could now walk around without tiring. His back was all but healed, and he was even exercising in the morning, running around and stretching.

Sakura still didn't talk to her. She had stopped coming home drenched from head to toe from whatever kind of training she was doing after two days and started going with Sasuke to keep watch. Naruto kept training until she could access her chakra instinctively. Controlling it was another matter entirely. Even though she could climb to the top of the tree relatively easily by the end of the fourth day, she still had to concentrate on nothing but her feet in order not to slip and fall. She eventually managed to do it without thinking, but the prospect of going through the same amount of effort in everything was bringing down her mood. Sasuke's occasional snarky remarks didn't help.

Six days after they had first arrived at Tazuna's house, nothing had happened yet. They had all packed their belongings and planned to leave by noon the following day. Dinner was a tense affair. No one talked, not even Tsunami. As helpful and kind as the woman had been with them, she knew that they were leaving, and that she was thus losing her only protection. When Gato attacked again, they would be powerless. Hatake had taken Naruto, Sakura and Sasuke apart the same afternoon to warn them not to do 'anything stupid'. They were leaving, this mission

wasn't something they could handle, and they shouldn't feel guilty about it. Sasuke didn't answer. Sakura's lips thinned into a white line of anger, but she stayed silent as well.

Naruto barely managed to restrain herself from screaming in frustration.

She hated it. She hated everything about their situation. She hadn't had a good night's sleep since they had arrived, Sakura was being frankly _unfair_ to her, and now she had to abandon a family—and entire country—to their gruesome fate. It didn't matter that she would be powerless to do anything even if she tried. Tazuna was an old drunk, and he had insulted them, but he didn't deserve this. Tsunami, who was so lovely with all of them, didn't deserve this. Not even Inari, who refused to talk to any of them and just glared at them all day long, should have to live with the certainty that his grandfather was going to die.

The thought of just leaving without looking back, after this family had welcomed them and helped them recover… it left a taste like blood in the back of her mouth. It made something inside her roar and convulse with all its strength. She wanted to shake Hatake by the collar and make him realize how _not okay_ everything was. Except the man would never let her touch him, and she had a feeling that he knew all of this already, and was making this choice to protect her and her teammates.

Naruto didn't want her safety to come at the price of other people's lives and happiness. Deep inside, she thought that she would rather die.

So, while everyone ate in silence, thinking gloomy thoughts, she made her decision.

"I'm not leaving," she declared loudly.

Sakura's chopsticks fell from her hand with a small 'thud'. Sasuke swore under his breath. From the corner of her eyes, Naruto saw Tsunami's shoulder tense briefly, and the woman leveled a hopeful glance in her direction. This, more than anything, comforted her in her reasoning. Haku's words came back to her for the thousandth time, as clear as they had been when the girl had said them.

After all, what kind of Hokage would abandon a family at the first sign of struggle? Not the kind she wanted to become, that was for sure.

"What?" Sakura said. Her voice sounded weak, strangled. Naruto's heart skipped a beat. "No. You're not staying here."

"Try and stop me," Naruto said. Their eyes locked for the first time in days. She wondered whether hers were as bloodshot as Sakura's.

"This is stupid," Sasuke mumbled. "You're not staying, dead last."

"So what," she replied vehemently, "you wanna leave all this," she gestured to the house, to the bedroom Tazuna and Inari had disappeared into earlier, to Tsunami herself, "to the hands of the bad guys? Just because you're scared?"

"This has nothing to do with being _scared_ ," Sakura said, but her voice was trembling, and

Naruto knew she was lying. "Did you not listen to anything Hatake-sensei told us during the last few days? We're outmatched. We wouldn't be able to do anything even if we tried. We should head back for Konoha, and if Tazuna needs help then he can request the proper protection."

"He _doesn't have the money_ for the proper protection!" Naruto exclaimed. "You know that, Sakura-chan. Tazuna told us himself. That's the reason we're in this mess in the first place!"

"And what do you want us to do about it?" Sakura almost screamed. "There's nothing we can do! What use is staying here? We'll just die, and then Konoha will be missing four of its shinobi."

"She's right," Sasuke added, completely unhelpful. "Not to mention that sensei gave us his orders. You risk being tried for insubordination if you disobey them."

"Fucking hypocrite," Naruto growled, "you didn't have any trouble _disobeying_ when Zabuza attacked us last time. What happened, did you lose your balls along with your brain?" She shot a look at Hatake. The man was watching her attentively, for once, but he wasn't saying anything for or against her.

Rather than dissuade her, this made her feel taller, more and more certain that she was doing the right thing. She couldn't read her teacher, but she knew that he agreed with her. The thought filled her with pride.

"There's no difference between then and now, Sasuke," she said. "You didn't think back then, you just did the right thing. So do the same here."

She felt a hand grab her wrist, squeezing it to the point of pain. She tried to shake it off, but Sakura was having none of it and pulled her closer. "You're not staying," she breathed, eyes wide and feverish. "God help me, I'll knock you out and drag you to Konoha myself, but you're _not staying here_."

And like the last time they had argued, Naruto felt the same mixture of guilt and love and incomprehension overcome her. She bit her lips.

"Why are you so scared, Sakura-chan?" she asked softly. Sakura's breath caught for the barest of moments. She looked so much younger like this, with the naked fear on her face and the trembling in her fingers. So very different from the authoritative figure she always tried to maintain.

"You always do this," Sakura moaned. Her grip slacked on Naruto's wrist. Naruto didn't try to slip out of it. "You put yourself in danger uselessly and then I- how do you expect me to protect you like that? How am I supposed to make sure you don't get hurt? You've already almost died twice, and I couldn't do anything to stop it." Her hand was clammy against Naruto's skin. "I can't watch you get hurt anymore, I _can't_."

Silence followed her words, only troubled by the sound of Hatake's book snapping shut. Their teacher still didn't intervene, though. Sasuke, too, was watching the scene with interest. Evidently they had been waiting for the both of them to explode at some point.

Naruto felt a little foolish for letting things drag for so long. Now that she had Sakura almost pressed against her, body shaking with dry sobs and hands pawing at her like they were afraid she was about to disappear, she understood how childish she had been, to think that Sakura wanted to end their friendship.

Sakura was simply very, very worried about her. Worried like only family ought to be. Like a sister. Naruto blinked away the tears that gathered at the corner of her eyes following this realization. The only family she had consisted of Iruka, who made for some sort of older sibling-slash-father figure, but who didn't really love her like Sakura did. Sakura was her teammate. They sparred together, and laughed together, and shared pointless gossip together. She was precious to Naruto like no one had ever been before. She was her first friend. How could she have thought that one argument would be enough to destroy that?

She put her hands on Sakura's shoulders gently, pushing her upright. There was something she needed to clear up, and she wanted to have her friend's complete attention for it.

"Sakura-chan," she said with a tentative smile. Her friend's shoulders shook for a second, but she didn't look at her. "I don't need you to protect me. I'm fine, right? I'm all right. I'm alive, I'm not hurt. You don't need to worry about me."

"How can you say that?" Sakura snapped. She tried to make herself look commanding, but didn't quite manage. Her face was too open, her body too shaken. "You got lucky once. Zabuza could have killed you. And now you want to throw yourself at him? And for what? To alleviate your guilty conscience?"

"Isn't that what you're trying to do?" Hatake interjected.

Naruto turned toward him. He was looking at his hands resting on the tabletop, giving no hint that he was at all invested in their conversation. But he was. She just knew he was, even if she didn't understand why, or why he had apparently taken her side in the debate. It wasn't something she could examine just now, however.

"What would _you_ know about what I'm thinking," Sakura hissed in direction.

"I've been a shinobi for quite some time, you know," the man answered conversationally. "I know a thing or two about guilt." Sasuke hummed, perhaps in agreement. Hatake's eye flickered to him so quickly that Naruto almost missed it. "I think what Uzumaki is trying to tell you is that she wants you to stop mothering her."

Naruto winced.

"This has nothing to do with it," Sakura retorted, obviously struggling not to yell again. "This isn't what this is about. Naruto wants to disobey your orders. Are you really not going to do anything about this?"

Hatake shifted in his seat, looking at her coldly. "Oh, I don't know. Can you look at me in the eyes and honestly tell me that this is about her disobeying my orders and not your own fear taking precedence over your judgment?"

This seemed to hit Sakura like a physical blow. She flinched under their teacher's unforgiving gaze, a gasp coming out of her as if she had been punched in the back.

Naruto took all of this in, and spoke again. "We're shinobi, Sakura-chan," she said. "We're always going to be in danger. I mean, that's basically the job description. Get in danger, do what you're supposed to do, try not to get killed. So please, stop worrying about me." She flushed at her own words. "I mean- not that I don't- I like you, okay? You're my friend. And of course it's okay to worry about your friends. I worry about you too. I was very scared when that Demon guy tried to attack you."

Naruto knew she wasn't making herself clear. But Hatake was looking at her again with something like _approval_ , so she couldn't screw this up. She had to make them understand.

"Look, I… I appreciate everything you've done for me. And I would hate it if we didn't ever talk again, I really would. And even though I'm not used to- to people _mothering_ me, not that it's what you're doing-" she winced, and flashed Sakura a guilty look, "but it's. It's nice, that you care so much about me. I've never really had anyone care about me like that, so even though it makes me feel a little weird, it's really nice."

She took a deep breath.

"But," she said a little louder, and Sakura finally lifted her head, "you can't just expect me to never take risks during missions. I'm a ninja. It's my _job_. I'm going to be in danger, and sometimes I'm not going to listen if I think the orders are bullshit, because that's just how I am. You can't change me, and you can't make it so that I stay safe all the time, and I wouldn't appreciate it if you tried. It's fine to want to protect me when we fight against bad guys, but you can't just expect me to let everyone do the dirty work. You've got to trust _me_ to protect myself. I'm not a child anymore, and I'm not gonna be dead weight in this team, and I want you to respect that."

Sakura was very still. Her green eyes bore through Naruto as though she was transparent, her face slack with shock. Somehow that didn't surprise her. She didn't think she had ever stood up to Sakura before, no matter what the other girl did or said. Naruto had been truthful, though.

She _liked_ Sakura—more than liked her, actually—and she was happy that the other girl had helped her so much with training and during missions and when they simply spent time together. But Sakura tended to act as though Naruto was someone she had to _take care of_. Naruto wasn't a child. She had lived on her own all her life. She didn't want, or need, a parent. She wanted a friend who would see her eye-to-eye, who would consider her an equal. And she was done with playing by Sakura's rules if it meant that Sakura wouldn't respect that. If she couldn't… well, then, Naruto would rather they didn't talk anymore.

"Congratulations, Naruto," Sasuke said, breaking the heavy silence. "That almost made sense."

Her lips quivered under the urge to smile. Sasuke only ever used her name when he agreed with her.

"I see I'm outnumbered," Sakura said weakly.

"It would seem so," Hatake murmured from his corner. Naruto jumped a little. She had almost forgotten his presence.

Then she stood up and pointed her finger at him. "And sensei, don't think I'm done with you yet. Your orders _are_ bullshit. I thought people who abandoned their comrades were worse than trash! That's what you said! How can we just abandon Tazuna to protect our own asses? Wouldn't that make us _worse_ than worse than trash?"

"There goes her eloquence," Sasuke smirked.

"Eat dirt," she replied, trying to punch him in the arm. He dodged her easily.

They glared at each other, but Naruto was more interested in Hatake than him at the moment. Their teacher had closed his eyes again, to her disappointment. It seemed she had used up all the attention he was willing to give her for the day. Possibly the week.

"We're not leaving," Hatake finally said. Sakura bristled, but before she could speak, he lifted a hand to stop her. "It should be fine. I'm mostly recovered, so I'll get rid of Zabuza when he shows up. You three," he leveled a warning glance at them, "will keep his little friend occupied. This is my official order, now. I won't be able to go all out against Zabuza unless I'm sure you're all protecting each other's back. No knocking out the others. No arguing on the battlefield. I need you all to act like a team so we can get out of this mess and get the Hokage to send more appropriate help. Do we all agree to this?"

They all nodded mutely, even Sakura.

Nobody said much afterward. Naruto took the first watch for the night, since she was certain she wouldn't be able to sleep immediately. Sakura left for the living-room—which they had been sharing and sleeping in since their arrival—without so much as a glance in her direction, but Naruto wasn't too worried. Now that she understood a little better what had gone through her teammate's head for the past few days, she could recognize that Sakura needed to be on her own for a while and think things through. She wasn't the kind of person who avoided confrontation. This was partly what made her so great in Naruto's eyes. She would come and talk to her when she was ready, no doubt about it.

The silence outside was deafening. Clouds hung low over her head, heavy with the promise of snow, hiding the stars from her sight. Aside from the pool of yellowish light that the white ground reflected from Hatake's bedroom window, everything was pitch black. The moon was a pale stain up above, barely a glow. Like a ghost's sleep-slow eye. Blink in, blink out.

Naruto sat still on the porch for a very long time, eyes closed and ears open. If she concentrated very hard, she could make out wet little sounds, some small animal's footsteps in the frozen land, not much louder than her own heartbeat. She wondered where all the birds were. She was freezing under her clothes, her toes and fingers numbing. Shivers ran over her skin. It didn't bother her. She felt strangely in tune with her body. She wiggled her feet and hands and smiled at the way the cold ebbed away from them in little pinpricks.

At one point, a blanket was thrown over her shoulders. Small hands tucked it around her with care, and Tsunami's voice, rough and broken, whispered 'thank you' in her ear.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Once more, you're all way too kind to me. This chapter is a little shorter (still 13k words, though) but I hope you enjoy it all the same.

I have unfortunately reached the end of the chapters I had written in advance, so I can't guarantee that I will keep posting every two weeks like I have so far. I hope you can all forgive me. I promise you the story won't be abandoned.

 **Walking With a Ghost**

Chapter 4.

Sakura woke up with a start, disoriented and panicked. For a moment her imagination ran wild, bringing up the worst possible scenarios, still in the midst of her nightmare. They had all gone to confront Zabuza without her, Hatake had failed, Naruto was injured, Naruto was _dead_ … And then she realized that she could hear Sasuke's soft breathing next to her and Naruto's occasional snores, and that nothing had happened. It wasn't even dawn yet.

She wiped cold sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand, sitting up in her bedroll. The room was dark still, curtains drawn, a little stifling with body heat. She peeled the covers off her legs and put on her clothes as silently as she could. A sudden intake of air from Sasuke told her that he was awake as well, but she didn't try to talk to him. Not that Naruto would have woken up even if they had yelled—the girl was incredibly difficult to tear from slumber for someone who was always so energetic in the morning—but the previous evening's conversation was too bright in her memory. She didn't want to confront him just yet.

She crossed the room quietly and left it, closing the door behind her. The house was silent around her. No one else seemed to be up and about, but she knew that Hatake was keeping watch somewhere. This was the only logical reason why she hadn't been woken up for her own turn. The man must have told Sasuke to let her rest. She wanted to be mad at him for this as for everything else, but all she felt was distant gratitude. An entire night of sleep had done wonders to her body. Her muscles were more relaxed than they had been in days, the last of the soreness caused by her water-walking training having faded at last.

Unfortunately, the same thing couldn't be said for her mood, and it was with upturned lips and fear and anger burning low in her chest that she found her teacher sitting on the front porch, reading his book.

"Hello," Hatake said without moving.

Sakura didn't ask him how he had known she was there. She sat next to him without a word, bare feet grazing the freshly fallen snow. They quickly got wet and ice-cold, but she simply channelled some chakra into them to keep them warm. Hatake was looking at her attentively now.

"You've really got the hang of chakra control," he commented, closing his book and slipping it into his pocket. "That was very creative."

"Thanks," she replied without heat.

"You might want to save some for later, though. We have a big day in front of us."

His visible eye went over her, no doubt gauging how open to conversation she looked at the moment. He must have interpreted her sullen expression as a peace offering, because he kept talking in the same carefully neutral voice. She didn't particularly want to talk to him, but she didn't have the energy to tell him to shut up either. She felt sluggish, like the world around was made of cotton and she was the only solid thing. Even Hatake's face looked more boring than usual. Almost colorless.

"Zabuza will likely attack either today or tomorrow, while Tazuna is at the bridge directing the construction crew. That's where he'll be the most vulnerable. It's also just above water. That's plenty of ammunition for a shinobi who mostly uses water-based techniques."

Sakura balanced her heels on the edge of the wood step. She hugged her knees, putting her face between them, before answering in a muffled voice, "Why don't we just prevent him from going to work until Zabuza comes here, then?"

"That's not going to be possible, unfortunately." He sighed. "Tazuna doesn't want to risk his family being hurt in the crossfire."

"And what about his construction crew? Won't _they_ risk being hurt in the crossfire?"

Hatake didn't answer. Sakura didn't need him to.

Everyone had their priorities.

Quite ironically, when dawn finally came, the sky was clear. It would be a gorgeous day. The sun came up slowly, climbing its way above the horizon, glimmering on water and ice and burning their eyes. Cold droplets fell from the thin stalactites that had formed on the roof's edge. Tazuna's house was truly beautiful, she thought. It must not look so different from Konoha in the summer, when the trees were green and full and all the animals alive.

It was bright light by the time Sasuke joined them, in full gear. The Leaf symbol on his headband caught the sunlight for a second, blinding her.

"Naruto's ready," he told them, checking his weapon pouch absently. "She's eating the whole kitchen right now, so if you want something you better hurry up."

Hatake nodded, standing up and disappearing inside the house. Sakura wasn't hungry, and she didn't want to see Naruto so soon, but she followed all the same. They were on a mission. She couldn't let her personal feelings get in the way, not anymore.

They took off for the bridge a few minutes later with all their weapons, leaving only their bags and non-essentials behind, as well as a couple of Naruto's clones. This time, when Naruto took her giant and perfectly impractical shuriken with her, nobody laughed.

Sakura had been to the bridge several times since she had completed her training, and Sasuke

as well. They were used to the grand edifice by now, but Naruto wasn't. Predictably, she spent the first twenty minutes doing nothing but gaping at the pillars and the spread of unfinished road, bothering the workers and running up and down. Sakura opened her mouth to tell her not to waste chakra, but thought better of it. She still didn't know how to address her friend without tears welling up in her eyes. She couldn't appear weak today of all days. Besides, if Naruto started losing track of the situation, Sakura trusted Sasuke to take care of it for her.

"Today feels strange," Sasuke said quietly.

He was standing next to her, leaning on the railing and looking upward. Sakura leaned over to peer at the water. It was so clear she could see the bottom, as if the sand and white rocks catching the light were only centimeters beneath the surface.

"Strange how?" she asked, because that was what he expected of her.

"I don't know. I have a bad feeling."

 _You and me both_ , she thought. But then again, she had had terror swelling in her belly sinceday one.

The day crawled by at a snail's pace. Minutes felt like hours, hours like weeks. The weather was warm enough in full light that some of the workers had taken off their coats and jackets and were now working with bare arms. A while ago, Sakura reflected, she would have taken the occasion to look at their bodies and try and blush like girls who looked at men ought to.

Some of her friends from the Academy had been like that a lot. Cute giggling girls, talking about boys and boys' bodies and what boys liked. What Sasuke liked.

She gave her teammate a sideway look. It was a little unnerving to her how every trace of her attraction had disappeared after they had become a team. She used to think about him every day, she recalled. She used to argue violently with Ino, who had never participated in the boy-talks herself, but had been very vocal about her intentions toward the Uchiha boy. She would try and talk to him during every class, every meal time, every school outing. She had written _poems_ about him, and drawn little hearts around his name in her notebooks.

In her mind and in others', Sasuke had been the living fairytale prince. They had forced qualities on him that she now realized he had never possessed. Sasuke was a serious and aloof person, yes, but it wasn't something worth fantasizing about. Not with how completely awkward he also was where human interaction was concerned. Not with the ache and the loneliness that followed him like a shadow and the nights he spent awake, breath catching in his throat in pain and anger, while she listened and prayed for sleep to find him.

She didn't know him better now than when they had finally started seeing eye-to-eye, after her first fight with Hatake—and her monumental failure. She knew that he was serious with her because she had proved that she could be serious in turn. She knew that they talked almost exclusively of team-related matters, and that all of of her forays into small talk were met with discomfort and silence. They planned easily together, and she was proud to call herself his match in strategy and tactics. Her hard work paid off well against his natural talent. But they weren't close. She could look inside herself all she wanted, she only felt a slight affection

toward him. She enjoyed his company now that he had stopped being an ass to her and Naruto, but she didn't seek it outside of team meetings, even if she always politely invited him to join them for casual hang outs. He never accepted them.

She had noticed, however, that his relationship with Naruto, while more lively, was also more natural. He was at ease with her like he never was with Sakura or Hatake—or anyone else that she had ever seen him with, for that matter. Sakura wondered whether Naruto might know more about Sasuke than she was letting on. That would be like her.

At noon, all the workers stopped for lunch. Sakura and the rest of team seven joined them, and some men started asking Hatake questions about his life as shinobi. He met them all with careful non-answers, which seemed to satisfy them. Sasuke was sitting in the shade of a pillar, and Naruto was laying flat on her back, basking in the sun with a smile on her face.

And then Naruto's smile disappeared, and she jumped to her feet.

"The house's been attacked," she told Hatake.

"Zabuza?" he asked quickly, getting up as well.

"No, just two random dudes with axes. My clones took them out and one of them popped out to tell me. Inari and Tsunami are fine, just scared."

Hatake nodded. "Okay. Zabuza won't be long, then."

Sakura approached, waiting for further orders. Around them, the crew was starting to fidget, the men paling and talking lowly among themselves. Tazuna was shaking. She noted, however, that his usual bottle of foul-smelling alcohol was absent. This made her smile tightly.

"These shadow clones are really useful," Sasuke said once Naruto had joined them at the bridge's entrance.

She smiled, "Yeah, I'm awesome," and Sakura thought fondly, _Yes, you are_.

The construction crew was leaving now, one man at a time, trying not to run. Worry, guilt and fear were warring on almost all their faces. She paid it no heed. They were civilians; as hard as their life must be under Gato's rule, they could never understand what it was like to be a shinobi. Doing the fighting for them was her job. Naruto's words from last night came back to her, and this time she understood them a little better. _I am not a child_.

The mist came barely fifteen minutes later, and when it did Hatake yelled, "Hurry!" to the last of the workers. This time, they did run. The fog enveloped them thickly in less than two minutes. Hatake was a blur in front of her, his back turned in her direction, his hands outstretched at his sides. She took her position to his left and Sasuke to his right. Tazuna was between them and Naruto closed the circle they made around him, her bright orange clothes the only sign of color in the murky air. Now that she knew what to expect, Sakura could spot the differences between this mist and the real kind. It was heavier, warmer, more damp. Too imbued with chakra to be cold.

There was no sound at all. It was as if the technique blanketed noise as well as sight, to make it more deadly. Her breath started speeding at the thought, and she forced herself to calm down. _Don't panic_ , she thought. Hatake had warned her against fear and the effects it could have on her. It paralyzed her, and it made her lose her reason, and she _had_ to fight it.

So she closed her eyes despite her beating heart and the slick sweat that made the kunai she was holding slip out of her grip, and she listened. _There's no difference_ , she told herself. _I can't_ _see through the mist anyway_. She concentrated on her ears, trying to channel chakra into themeven though she had never done it before. It didn't have any effect except to make them feel warmer, but it helped her focus. The molding and redirection of energy was so natural to her by now that the familiarity of it was calming.

She heard it a little after Hatake and Naruto did, the _zing_ of steel cutting through watery air. "Get down!" Hatake shouted, while Naruto yelped, and Sakura didn't hesitate. Her hands gripped Sasuke and Tazuna by their shirts and pulled them with her as she let her weight fall to the ground. She felt more than saw the shadow of Zabuza's great sword fly over them and embed itself into a pile of wet planks.

"We meet again, Kakashi," said Zabuza's deep voice.

And as the mist tinned so that he could see them better, and his long-limbed body came into view, Sakura realized that she had never really believed that he was dead.

Naruto moved next to her. Sakura gave her a look, but the other girl didn't notice it. She was too busy staring at the person standing by Zabuza's side, wearing a mask and loose-fitting clothes.

"Haku?" Naruto said in a disbelieving voice. It had been so small a sound that Sakura hardly caught it. But the boy raised his head swiftly, and something about his stance got more tense, more serious.

Zabuza observed it all with cold eyes. "Hand Tazuna over, Kakashi," he said. "I was lenient last time. I'm angry now. If you engage me in combat, there won't be any survivors."

"I know," Hatake replied calmly, taking a step forward. He was shielding them, Sakura realized. But she could still see the boy, probably the hunter-nin they had encountered the week before and who had managed to take out Zabuza from under their noses. Her control threatened to snap when she remembered that she was supposed to take him down with Naruto and Sasuke only. That Hatake would be busy with Zabuza, and that they couldn't call him for help as long as he hadn't killed the swordsman. They had to stall until then, or they wouldn't survive.

They wouldn't survive. Hatake had said it himself, she recalled with half-crazed snobs building in her throat: Zabuza's friend was as strong as a jounin, and he was very skilled with senbon. The boy could probably take them out in one flick of his wrist. Her breath caught, and she wanted to cough and cry and run and take Naruto in her arms and never let her go. She couldn't do this.

She wouldn't watch this happen. Just the thought was making her ears ring, her muscles spasm, her skin glisten with icy sweat.

A hand got hold of her forearm suddenly. She would have screamed, if she'd had any voice left.

"Calm down," Sasuke murmured. Sakura met his eyes. They held no remarkable emotion, safe for the riled up anxiousness of the approaching battle. But they were deep and they never left hers, and little by little, she felt her blood stop pumping so quickly at her temples.

"Are you okay, Sakura?" Hatake asked. Feeling numb, and even though she knew he couldn't see her, she nodded. "Good. I need you to focus, Sakura. It'll take the three of you to keep Zabuza's friend occupied while I take care of him. A little dose of the angry bookworm would do us all some good right now."

He didn't wait for an answer, and she didn't give him one. It was strange, she reflected, to hear her actual name come out of her teacher's mouth, instead of the disdainful 'Haruno' he had used so often. It suffused her with strength, slowly, like a gulp of hot tea in the morning.

"Sensei…" Naruto said hesitantly. "That g- that person with Zabuza-"

"Not now," Hatake interrupted. He shifted on his feet, a hand coming up to lift his forehead protector. _The Sharingan_ , she thought blankly, but she didn't have time to see it.

In front of them, Zabuza brought his hands together and started forming seals. "I've waited enough," he declared. "Enjoy your last minutes among the living." Then water was pulled out from the vast expanse of gleaming sea surrounding them—and slammed into Hatake's body from the side.

Sakura couldn't even yell. Something moved before her, faster than she could see, and a second later Sasuke was standing in front of her, parring a blow from the unknown nin. The boy jumped back and away from them, before standing up again with his hands raised in defense.

"He's fast," Sasuke panted, coming back to Sakura's side.

She wanted to thank him, and to ask him what the hell they were supposed to do besides attacking outright and getting _slaughtered_ , but Naruto's voice raised once more, cutting her off.

"Haku?" she asked, this time with more strength. She took a step forward with her empty hands raised in a peaceful gesture.

"What are _doing_?" Sakura asked, but Naruto didn't even acknowledge her. Instead she kept walking, until she was a bare meter in front of the fucking enemy, with no weapons within reach and a foolish expression on her face. Sakura grabbed Sasuke by the arm and buried her nails into his skin. He didn't react. She was sure that if she were willing to look away from the sight of Naruto jumping to her own death, she would have seen the same look of horror and fear on his face.

"Haku, is that you?" Naruto repeated. Her voice still carried to them through the ever-present mist and the sounds of metal clashing and Zabuza and Hatake grunting in pain and effort.

For a moment, time seemed to stand still. The fake hunter-nin didn't move, didn't speak, didn't try to attack Naruto. He simply kept up his stance, as if she wasn't right in front of him, an open

and bright-orange target, impossible to miss.

Finally, he relaxed somewhat. His weight shifted back and he raised his hand to his mask.

Sakura didn't know what she expected the face of a child strong enough to be Zabuza's equal to look like, but it wasn't this. It wasn't the soft eyes and longs strands of black hair framing pretty features, nor the deep sorrow etched into the corner of his lips when he smiled.

"I did not wish to meet you again in such circumstances, Naruto-san," he said.

Naruto didn't say anything for a little while. When she spoke again, her voice was meek, almost a whisper. "Are you with Zabuza, then?" she asked. The line of her shoulders was less straight than usual. She sounded pained, almost betrayed.

The boy—Haku—nodded wordlessly.

"Why?" Naruto breathed out, incredulous. "Why would someone as nice as you be-"

"I am not a nice person, Naruto-san," Haku interrupted.

"But everything you said, about becoming strong to defend the people you love…"

"I told you the truth. I told you what I truly believe. But that does not make me a good person."

Sakura didn't understand a thing they were saying. She did not try to. Her clammy hand was still glued to Sasuke's arm, and he still hadn't dislodged her. He must think, like her, that he couldn't spare any of his attention from the conversation taking place before them. Naruto knew the masked boy, one way or another, but none of it mattered when said boy was here to kill them.

"I have done terrible things," Haku continued when it became clear that Naruto didn't quite know what to say. "I am not ashamed of them. You cannot fight against me if you cling to the thought that I am someone you need to pity, or to save." He looked at Sakura and Sasuke. "You and your friends will die if you do. When next I attack, I will strike to kill."

This seemed to wake Naruto up from the weariness she had fallen into. She took a step back and spread her feet, ready to jump. "I won't let you hurt them," she declared. Sakura had no doubt that she was baring her teeth in that animal-like way of hers, as she always did when she was angry or annoyed.

"Good," Haku said softly. He put his mask back on and crouched fluidly in the stance he had taken earlier. "Let's see how strong you are, then."

"Sakura," Sasuke murmured. "Naruto and I will distract him. I need you to watch him closely and come up with a plan."

She swallowed. "Okay," she said, and just like that, he was gone, and her fingers closed on thin air.

He was by Naruto's side in an instant, as fast as ever, but Haku was faster. Sasuke managed to grab Naruto's jacket and throw her out of the way, but he couldn't avoid the attack entirely. Sakura whimpered when she saw the slice that Haku's senbon made into his hip, the drops of blood that fell to the ground and the way Sasuke's face tightened in pain. She bit her lips and didn't try to intervene, though. Praying silently for the needles not to be poisoned, she retreated to the side of the battle and watched.

She didn't let herself look at Naruto. The girl's voice echoed through the fog, calling up a dozen clones who proceeded to attack Haku with all their strength. Sasuke joined them, hiding between them, switching with them when he thought he had an opening. If it had been one of their self-assigned training sessions, Sakura would have applauded the ease with which her teammates coordinated their moves. It wasn't, however. This was so very, very real. With half of her attention turned to managing her building panic, Sakura couldn't focus on what Sasuke had asked of her. All she could take in and comprehend was Haku's speed, Haku's talent, Haku's sheer _strength_ , so far above their own she couldn't imagine a way out. The way he moved around Naruto's clones with no hesitation. The way even Sasuke's quick taijutsu couldn't hit him once. The feeling of sadness floating around Haku himself—as if he was doing his very best to leave them a chance, as if he truly regretted what he was about to do.

 _He's going to kill us_ , she realized with absolute certainty. _And then he'll feel sad for a while, but we're just gonna be one more mark on his killing record. He's going to kill us and then he's going to forget us_.

Such was the way of the missing nin. The deserters. Once they abandoned their village, once they forsook their oaths, there was nothing human left in them.

Sakura couldn't let this happen. Without thinking, she lifted the kunai she was still holding between trembling fingers, and cut into the back on her own hand.

Pain shot through her entire arm, ripping her out of her trance-like state. Her vision sharpened and the world stopped spinning around her. Muffled sounds became clearer, and finally, the panic ceased. Warm blood dripped down her fingers. She hadn't cut too deep; it wouldn't hinder her movements. This was a wake-up call, she thought, and then smiled at how very Naruto-like it was.

The real Naruto had joined her clones in the fight now. She and Sasuke were obviously doing their best, but no matter what they did, they couldn't get a hold of Haku. The boy was simply too fast. Sakura had never seen anyone fight like that, jounin or no. He dodged and sidestepped as if he could read all their minds, but he still didn't attack. This probably meant that he was waiting for them to get tired.

Sakura whistled, and Sasuke immediately jumped back towards her. Naruto, noticing this, edged away from close-range as well, summoning six clones to keep Haku busy.

"What have you got?" he asked, while Naruto stumbled to their side. They both looked at her bleeding hand in surprise, but didn't comment, thankfully. Naruto was blinking rapidly, probably under the backlash of all of her clones' memories. Sasuke was wincing slightly, arm hovering above his own injury. They were both panting.

"He's too fast, the only way to hit him would be to manage to grab him somehow," she answered. Two clones had disappeared already.

"I've been trying to hit his legs the entire time, but it's like he can see my moves before I make them," Sasuke acquiesced.

"Yeah," growled Naruto. "The clones and I can't touch her- _him_ either, so adding in numbers isn't going to help us."

"Can't you make a lot of them at once, to overwhelm him?" Sakura asked. Three clones left. Haku was advancing toward them now.

Naruto shook her head. "If I make more than a dozen right now they'll just bump into each other and pop out without doing any good. Stupid clones," she spat out, fidgeting restlessly. "I wish there was a way to make them last longer."

Two clones, now. Haku was waiting, looking at the three of them, his white mask like a visage come straight out of a nightmare.

"Sakura," Sasuke said. She lifted her head, meeting his eyes. "Do you remember that move you used on Hatake when you tried to fight him? The one that broke that rock?"

"Yes," she answered, frowning.

"Do you think you could use it again?"

She bit her bottom lip. "I don't know," she said, trying not to focus on the fact that only one clone was standing between them and the enemy now. Next to her, Naruto was already forming hand seals to create new ones. "It's a very taxing move. If I use it then I'll be out for the rest of the fight. I won't even be able to use a simple clone."

He nodded thoughtfully, and then turned to Naruto. They both looked at each other for a few long seconds, and Sakura was surprised to see the emotions flooding Naruto's face, from elation to anxiousness to reluctance.

"All right," she grumbled finally, and Sakura barely had time to think, _What the hell_ , before two clones appeared by her sides and took hold of her arms.

"Aim for him, and then when he avoids you kick the ground next to his feet," Sasuke ordered.

"I'm going to throw you at him now, Sakura-chan," Naruto added, scowling. Sakura didn't have time to answer, because the Naruto-clones lifted her off the ground and flung her at Haku.

She didn't think. She only had about two seconds before she reached him, but with all the training she had had over the week and during the months she had spent perfecting that particular technique, it was more than enough to access her chakra and pour it into her right foot. She didn't stop at the amount it took to walk up a tree or on the surface of water, though. She flooded as much of it as she could into her foot, regardless of the waste, until she could see a faint bluish glow all the way up to her ankle.

Haku stepped aside at the last moment, with ease and confidence. But Sakura struck the ground with a harsh yell, and rock and concrete split beneath her heel. Haku let out a gasp and lost his precious balance for less than a second. It was enough.

Sasuke was at her side in a flash, switching his body with a few bits of road. He swept his arms under Haku's armpits and locked him in a fierce hold. "Now, Naruto!" he called, and the rest was blur of orange as three different Narutos started kicking and punching, until the sick sounds of flesh hitting flesh and cloth tearing and wood cracking filled Sakura's ears.

It didn't last long, however. They had gotten a lucky shot through by pure bold-mindedness, but Haku was a professional. He broke Sasuke's hold in a few seconds, kicked him away—taking care to hit the still-bleeding gash on his hip—and then raised his head toward Naruto, who had stepped back as soon as he had freed himself. His mask was broken in the middle, crumbling into little shards. Haku got rid of it with one broad sweep of his hand, his eyes never leaving Naruto's. His right cheek was cut, and a bruise was purpling already at his temple. This time, his face held no sign of remorse or compassion. He was pale and serious, his eyes cold as ice. _The face of a killer_ , Sakura thought. She tried to crawl away despite the exhaustion that wastaking over her and the pain in her right leg.

"See, Haku?" Naruto said then, smiling grimly. "I'm strong. I'm not going to let you hurt them."

"I underestimated you," Haku admitted. He wasn't even panting, Sakura noticed. "But you're underestimating me as well, Naruto-san. I have someone I need to protect, someone I have killed and almost died for more times than I can count. Your bounds with your little friends," he raised a hand, "are nothing next to the one I have. And this makes me _very_ strong."

There were two senbon between his knuckles, and he sent them flying to Sakura, who was still lying prone among debris and broken tools, unable to move. She heard Naruto scream her name, in-between the slow beat of her own heart inside her head. The needles shone thin stripes of light as they flew, one aimed at her chest—her heart—the other at her face.

Sakura hadn't seen Haku throw the senbon at Zabuza, the first time he had met her team. But she had listened to Sasuke's recollection of the event, to the jealous tint in his voice as he described to her the talent that had made even Hatake play along with the boy's false claims, afraid to provoke him. She had no doubt, at this instant, that each senbon would find its target.

Except that she was suddenly being hauled out of the way, landing roughly on hard concrete. Sasuke was holding her against him, panting into her neck. The faint sound of metal hitting stone reached her.

" _Fuck_!" Naruto cried after a second, and ran to where they were both sitting in shocked silence. "Fuck, Sasuke," and her voice was half a sob and half a laugh, "how the fuck did you do that? Sakura-chan, are you okay?"

Sakura nodded mutely, blood running icy-hot through her head and her limbs. Sasuke released her and stood on wobbly feet, gripping his shoulder. Only then did she notice the end of the senbon stuck into his back, way too close to his spinal chord.

"Sasuke," Naruto repeated in a strange voice. Numbly, Sakura raised her head to look at her. Her teammate was watching Sasuke's face with wide eyes.

"What?" he said tiredly, body turned to where Haku was still standing, observing them with renewed interest.

"Your eyes…"

He flinched. His hand dropped his shoulder and came to his face, rubbing at it, and he let out a very faint gasp. Sakura wished she had the strength to stand up as well.

"They look like Hatake-sensei's-"

"Yeah," he cut. His voice was a weird sort of proud, bloated with emotion. "That's the Sharingan." And then, barely a whisper, "Fucking _finally_."

He looked down at Sakura. She barely managed to restrain a cry of surprise when she saw his red eyes, and the small comma-like markings surrounding the pupils.

"This changes everything." He smiled at her, very thinly. "Thanks, Sakura."

"So you are cursed with a bloodline ability," Haku interrupted suddenly. They all turned toward him. His face was colder than it had been a moment before. "To awaken it in combat is very impressive. However, you will not be able to use it against me."

"And how would you know that?" Sasuke asked.

Haku smiled. "Because I am intimately familiar with bloodlines."

His hands came together in a flurry of hand-seals, some of them too fast to see, some of them unknown to Sakura. The light changed around her. She heard Naruto's distant yelp as mirrors surrounded them, reflecting their pales faces and the sharp glint of Sasuke's Sharingan.

"They're made of chakra," Sasuke said immediately. "I can see it."

"Thanks, Captain Obvi-" Naruto started to reply in stress-induced annoyance, but Sasuke had taken hold of her sleeve and pulled toward him, just in time. Three senbon buried themselves in the ground where she had stood. "Shit," she said faintly, patting herself for injuries.

Sasuke didn't stop here. He crouched, his eyes darting from side to side, and then he took a couple of shuriken from his pouch and threw them at a mirror on the far right. Sakura couldn't see much, but it seemed to her that a shadow had moved swiftly out of its smooth surface. The shuriken didn't do any damage, simply rebounded and fell with little cold noises. Sakura shivered. Her breath came out in little streams of vapor now, and her arms crawled with goosebumps.

"So your eyes can see me, even at my greatest speed," Haku's voice came from everywhere around them. "But as I thought, your body cannot follow. Not without the appropriate training. It's a shame that I have to kill you. I have a great respect for bloodlines, and especially for

those who have to bear them without the help of a clan."

"And this is yours, I guess?" Sasuke answered through gritted teeth. "What is it, water mixed with wind?"

"Very good," Haku purred.

The soft whistling sound of flying senbon came to them again, this time from behind where Sakura lay. Naruto and Sasuke immediately took hold of her and dragged her out of the way. She didn't miss the light hiss of pain Naruto let out as one of the senbon grazed her ankle.

"Naruto," Sasuke said in a hurried voice. "We need to get Sakura out of here."

"Yeah, no shit," Naruto answered. "I can't see anything with all those mirrors. Can you see him?"

He nodded. "I'll cover for you until you get out of his hold. Hurry."

"I'm coming back right after," she warned, and he huffed derisively. She hoisted Sakura onto her back with little trouble—Naruto's physical strength was always surprising, considering how tiny she was, how thin and undernourished her limbs looked—and prepared to sprint out of the mirror-cage. "We're gonna be okay, Sakura-chan," she murmured, her mouth next to Sakura's ear. "You don't have to worry about anything."

Sakura wanted to cry. She wanted to squeeze her arms around Naruto's neck and let out the sobs that had been clogging her throat ever since she had seen the hit Sasuke took to protect her. But she forced herself to swallow her fear down and nod. She was a shinobi. She was a kunoichi of Konoha. Her team trusted her, and she had to trust them. She held on tightly as Naruto started running, groaning through the pain in her ankle but not slowing down in spite of it. The mirrors all around them had huge gaps between one and the other, more than enough for them to pass through. Behind them, Sakura heard the sounds of metal clashing, as Sasuke deflected the senbon Haku was trying to hit them with. Naruto never stopped running. Even as Haku appeared in the mirror at their left and cut deep into Naruto's flank. She just yelled, and gripped Sakura tighter, and hauled her between the mirrors and out of the technique's hold. Sakura fell on her hands, scrapping herself on little stones, and turned to look behind herself.

The mirrors were barely visible from the outside. Like screens of shimmering air between her and her teammates, hardly tangible. She had no doubt that Haku himself could use them one way or the other, so she didn't linger. She wouldn't be a liability, no matter how weak she was. With pained cries, she lifted herself to her feet. She didn't try to stop the tears from running down her face, mixing with the sweat above her lips, leaving salty trails on her mouth. She collected them with the tip of her tongue. Sakura fought the soreness in her right leg and her chakra exhaustion to take trembling steps away from her team and toward Tazuna. The man still stood in a frightened trance where they had left them. He was safe as long as Zabuza and Haku were kept busy, after all. His face lit up at the sight of her, and she felt her disgust of him rising another notch. This was all his fault, no matter what Naruto said in his defense, and she would never forgive him the pain and fear he had caused them. If they got out alive.

"What's happening?" he asked in a small voice.

She ignored him. The mist had faded entirely from the bridge now; sunlight flooded the scene once more. A dozen meters away, too close for comfort, Zabuza and Hatake were still fighting. Both of them looked rather the worse for wear, she noticed with worry. Hatake was bleeding profusely from a cut on the chest, and one of Zabuza's arms had two kunai planted in it, right below the shoulder, cutting the muscles. The wound wasn't deep, but he couldn't perform hand seals anymore. It also forced him to swing his huge sword with only one hand. It seemed Hatake was winning.

A flicker of hope lit up inside her, but she squashed it immediately. She couldn't lose her focus. In a few minutes she would be used to the pain in her leg and able to fight, at least hand-to-hand. She couldn't do anything about her chakra exhaustion. Silencing the little voice inside her —the one telling her that she had wasted her one shot at victory, that she was responsible for the blood clotting on Naruto's clothes and the dark expression on Sasuke's face—she raised her arms and took her best defensive stance. And she watched.

She watched as Sasuke and Naruto attacked and missed, time and time again, as their bodies slowed and they couldn't avoid the blows anymore. She watched as more and more senbon slowly pierced their skin, some grazing them and falling off specked with blood, some burrowing into their flesh and not coming out at all. She was watching when Naruto fell to her knees, unable to stand up, and although she couldn't hear them through the walls of chakra, she knew the words on Sasuke's lips as he tried desperately to pull her along and out of harm's way. They were on her lips as well, after all. Even as her vision blurred until they were just colorful shapes, flickering blue-orange-red, she kept watching.

Until there was no movement from either of them anymore, and Naruto started sobbing, the orange shape cradling the blue one close to her. Sakura choked in silence, tears and snot in her face, but she didn't drop her stance. No matter how much she trembled, how much her heart ached, how much she wished to run and drape her body over theirs to protect them. They were alive. They had to be. As long as Naruto sobbed, as long as she yelled and screamed, she was alive.

"Please, sensei," she called weakly, rasping out the words as if they were blades slashing her throat from the inside. "Sensei. Sensei."

They weren't supposed to bother him, she knew. But all she could see and all she could hear was Naruto, Naruto's arms around Sasuke's still body, Naruto's voice hiccuping and moaning. And the dark silhouette of Haku circling her, from mirror to mirror, from dead angle to dead angle. Saying things she couldn't make out, but which made Naruto howl and growl and the air around her sparkle with energy.

"Sensei!" Sakura screamed, and several things happened at once.

A shiver took her over. Something changed, some kind of pressing feeling deep in her gut, and her stomach rolled and rolled until she could taste vomit in her mouth. Hatake stopped dead in his tracks, turned his head toward Naruto and yelled, " _No_ ," with a voice she had never heard him use.

And then red chakra filled Haku's mirror prison.

x

Naruto saw red.

Heat flooded her, burning her from the inside. She wanted to writhe on the ground and scream, but she couldn't move. Fury shook her to the core, so deep and powerful it felt alien, hers and not hers at the same time. She felt pain in her fingers, in her cheeks and her eyes, and it seemed to her that if she were to cry now nothing would come out but blood. A low and growling voice chuckled very faintly in the distance, like a gong ringing inside her body. It wrecked her in long slow beats.

Naruto opened her eyes and looked around her, finding Haku in a second. There was a curtain of red-orange _something_ between them now, and he was circling it hesitantly, jumping from mirror to mirror, trying to find a way in. Naruto should have felt surprised that she could see him now, when he had been nothing more than a shadow a few minutes ago. But all the fury and all the pain suddenly took a direction, a focus in her, and she forgot all about it.

Sasuke was still resting in her arms where he had fallen. Seven different senbon were buried in his chest, and others yet in his thighs and arms. One in his neck, leaking blood drop by drop. He wasn't breathing anymore, his last words long expired on his lips, although they rang loud and clear in Naruto's memory. With a growl, because she was unable to form words, she lay him on the ground, taking care to avoid furthering his injuries. It was useless. He was dead. But she did it anyway, grappling with the last strands of her self-awareness, before the red heat enveloped her and took that away as well.

Everything became a blur of movements and pain afterward. She let the fury guide her. She snapped her own muscles and bones catching up to Haku's speed. It didn't matter, they healed in a second. The energy had ripped all the senbon out of her and repaired tendons and skin. She was burning everywhere, cuts and gashes closing with tendrils of crimson smoke, her eyes wide open, red bleeding into the corners of her vision. She fought the hold the anger had on her, and then she stopped. It hurt too much when she struggled. She stared without seeing as her fingers—her claws—dug into Haku's skin, as her fists hit him relentlessly, trying to break, trying to _kill_.

 _Fools, all of them_ , the low chuckle inside her said. _They stand before me. I will eat them all_.

Dazed, Naruto realized that she had somehow managed to rip Haku out of his mirrors. They were cracked all over, melting quickly, as he lost his grip on his technique. A second later she was straddling him with a kunai at his neck, ready to slice his head off. Their eyes met.

A gasp tore itself out of her throat then. Breath coming in quick pants, body trembling in the aftermath, sore all over, she felt the rage trickle away slowly. Haku was watching her with no emotion in his eyes, no trace of fear or anger. Only the same sad little turn of his mouth, the same softness in his expression, that he had had when they first met and spent an afternoon digging in the mud.

Perhaps it was the memory of that innocent meeting that stayed her hand. Perhaps it was the look in Haku's eyes, the emptiness. Whatever it was, Naruto found herself still above him, poised to strike, with no memory of the past few minutes and a hole in her soul the size of the world where Sasuke had been.

"Why…" she whispered. But she didn't know what to ask. Why did you kill him? Why aren't you struggling anymore?

Why do you look so heartbroken, even though you're the one who just killed my friend?

"You should always finish what you start, Naruto-san," Haku murmured. His bottom lip was bleeding, and pink spittle was gathering at the corner of his mouth as he spoke. His ribs must be broken. "It's never a good idea to be merciful."

"Shut up," she answered. Her fingers were so weak now. The kunai's blade, not as sharp as it should be, trembled against the pale skin of Haku's neck. Naruto grasped it with both hands to steady it.

"Do you think that boy I killed would have spared me?"

Naruto wanted to roar. She wanted to dig her nails into Haku's face and tear and tear and tear. "Don't talk about Sasuke," she growled instead.

"He was such a promising boy." Haku shifted his head carelessly against Naruto's hold, looking toward where she knew Sasuke's body was still lying. "I heard the famous Uchiha clan of the Leaf had been slaughtered years ago. He must have been the last of them."

Tears gathered at the corner of Naruto's eyes. "Don't talk as if you knew him. You know nothing about him. You killed him."

Haku looked back at her with a fleeting smile. "I did," he breathed. "I was trying to kill _you_ , though. He sacrificed himself to save you. He saw a person he loved about to get hurt, and it gave him the strength to save them. I can respect that."

" _Bulllshit_ ," Naruto spat, leaning more heavily on top of the boy. She was crying now, fat tears spilling onto Haku's own face. "If you really respected him, you'd have let him live!"

Haku coughed, spitting blood in her face, so close was she. Vapor was still rising around them from the melting ice mirrors. She couldn't see anything, couldn't hear anything. She felt hollow and disoriented. She felt angry, and tired, and she ached like she had never ached before. Loss struck inside her chest in time with her heartbeat. It left her dizzy, wet with tears and the blood on her hands—Haku's blood, Sasuke's blood. Not hers.

"Kill me now, Naruto-san," Haku whispered. "Don't think about it. Just do it."

She wanted to, she realized. More than anything, she wanted to put her weight on the kunai and see it cut into Haku's throat. She wanted to see the blood pool around them and the life leave his eyes at last. He deserved it. For what he had done to Sasuke, for what he had almost done to her and Sakura, he deserved it. The red rage was still within reach. She could grasp it

and let it fill her again. If she didn't have the guts, it would.

Time passed. The smoke started clearing, little by little, until the sun found them again. With it, Naruto noticed the sorrow in Haku, the helplessness, even though he had more than enough strength left in him to shake her off and kill her. With the light there was no hiding from how _empty_ his eyes looked.

"Stop looking so sad," she said finally. She didn't know why it bothered her so much. It ought to make her happy instead. She should be reveling in his misery.

Haku smiled at her, but all it did was to make him look even more pitiful. "I've lost, you've won. You're about to kill me. What is there not to be sad about?"

"Not like that," Naruto shook her head. It wasn't defeat that she was seeing. It was loss, and grief, the kind she was feeling herself. And she wanted it to _stop_.

Haku's breath caught when the tip of the kunai finally cut his skin. A drop of blood ran down his neck and to the wet ground with a minuscule sound. His eyes never strayed from hers, though. There was no fear in him. Just this deep, deep resignation. Gone was the fondness Naruto had seen when they had met by chance in that clearing, when they had spent an entire afternoon in silence, plucking leaves and herbs from damp soil. Knees in the snow and heads in the clouds. The companionship she had felt then hadn't been fake, she was sure of it. The shy smiles had been genuine. The warmth those few hours had left in her hadn't been the fruit of manipulation and deceit.

Nothing made sense anymore. Naruto couldn't make the image of that soft-spoken girl, with her dirty hands and lonely smile, fit with the one she had in front of her: the boy in the ill-fitting shinobi attire, with his deadly needles and terrible bloodline techniques. The boy who had killed her teammate, her _friend_ , and who was now asking her to kill him.

"Doesn't Zabuza matter to you?" she asked finally. It was the only thing she could think of that made sense. The 'sick friend' Haku had talked about, the story about protecting people… but then, why was he sacrificing himself? He could take her. He could free himself. The anger that had fueled her was receding now, leaving her weak-limbed and shaking. He could sweep out of her hold and kill her, and she wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

"It doesn't matter," Haku said. His voice was as empty as his eyes. "You managed to beat me. I am no longer of any use to Zabuza-san. He doesn't need a useless tool."

"A tool," Naruto repeated, her heart clenching.

"Yes," Haku whispered, looking up toward the sky. "I have always been Zabuza-san's tool. I knew from the start that when the day came he would find himself tired of me, I would die."

"But-" Naruto's hands spasmed around the kunai, and Haku winced at the cut deepened. Without thinking about it, she lifted the blade away from his neck, letting it rest on his chest. "I don't understand," she tried again, searching Haku's eyes for a clue, a hint to the answer. She was so _confused_. "You know he's using you, and you still want to sacrifice yourself for him?

Just 'cause you think he doesn't have a 'use' for you anymore? That's the kind of person you want to protect?"

Haku nodded, smiling again. For some reason, it made Naruto want to weep.

"That doesn't make any sense!" she exploded, dropping her kunai altogether and grabbing Haku's collar, lifting his head off the ground and close to hers to peer at him intently. "What use are you if you die anyway? Sasuke was-" she choked on his name, but made herself continue, "he, he was going to do so many things. He had a dream, he had someone he wanted to find, and I know that if his family was alive they would all be so sad to see that all of this has been for nothing just 'cause he chose to _sacrifice_ himself for me." Tears came again, unbidden. She didn't try to refrain them. Haku was watching her with silent sympathy, and she wanted to hit him. "You don't know what the future's gonna be like. You could still be useful to Zabuza, or you could choose to do something for yourself. Just 'cause you got beat once doesn't mean you're useless. It doesn't mean anything!"

His hand came to rest on her wrist, but she hardly noticed it. He didn't look like he was going to start attacking her now, even though she had disarmed herself. _Stupid_ , she thought faintly.

 _Sakura-chan's going to kill me when she learns I did that_. She would also kill her when shelearned that Sasuke was dead because of her. It was all her fault. She had made them stay, after all. They could all have been on their way back to safety, but no, she had wanted to be a hero, and now Sasuke was dead. Dry, heaving sobs made her shake all over. Stupid, _stupid_.

"I knew when I met you that we were similar," Haku said in a soft voice. "But you wouldn't understand. I grew up in a terrible place, Naruto-san. People like me were hunted down. My own father tried to kill me, after he had murdered my mother." Naruto inhaled sharply, but Haku was squeezing her wrist, so she let him talk. "Zabuza-san never hid what he wanted from he. He took me in when no one else would. He found value in the disgusting bloodline that our Mizukage wanted so badly to eliminate. He fed me, he raised me. He gave me companionship. His goal became mine, his safety became my reason to live. You have just taken that away from me."

Haku released her hand, only to take hold of the abandoned kunai and place it back against his own neck. His other hand gently took Naruto's, guiding it to the handle. She wrapped her fingers around it instinctively.

"You can't let me live," Haku said. He had the voice of someone trying to lure in a small, frightened animal. "Zabuza-san would reject me, now that I have failed him. I would be left to my own devices, and then I would kill myself anyway. Better I die now and save him the trouble."

"I don't want to kill you," Naruto replied.

Haku's eyes hardened at this. "Don't be weak," he retorted harshly, and Naruto flinched. "You can't expect to never get your hands dirty, Naruto-san. One day you will have to kill, and the longer you put it off, the harder it will be. I told you before." He gestured to Sasuke—to Sasuke's body. "More of your friends will die if you do."

But Naruto was still above him. Haku sighed, and took her hands in his. They were thin and bony, with long pale fingers. An artist's fingers, not a killer's. He pressed them tighter against his throat. Blood spilled faster to the ground, a little stream now, tinting the puddles left by the mirrors.

"It this is any worth to you," he continued quietly, "I am glad to die by your hand, rather than my own. Although I regret that I have to taint you that way, I couldn't wish for a better executioner." His smile was sincere, Naruto noticed distantly. Wider, more open. "I am glad to die by the hand of one who would weep for her enemies as she does for her friends."

And she _was_ weeping, she realized. Her tears fell on top of their joined hands, mixing with the blood and the dirt on their skin. Haku watched all of this with his deep and lonely eyes. She wished, suddenly and furiously, that they had met under different circumstances.

"We could have been friends," she said in a strangled voice. She didn't need Haku's little nod to hear his answer. In a way, they already were. She would always remember that afternoon in the snow, a meeting between strangers.

Naruto stopped shaking. She tore her hands from Haku's, and the boy let them fall to his sides. With a deep breath, she raised her kunai, and prepared to strike.

But a strident noise hit them. Naruto cried out and dropped the kunai, covering her ears and trying to keep it out. It hurt her head and made her see stars. At the same time, Haku stopped being complacent. He rolled away from under her, faster than she could restrain him, and rose to his feet. She thought she saw him mouth 'I'm sorry' in her direction, but then he was gone, and she was left with her headache and blurry vision. Blood rushed to her head. Waves of nausea overcame her, until she leaned forward and retched painfully. Still the noise kept hammering her head, and finally she stopped resisting the urge to scream.

She must have passed out for a moment, because when she came to, she was lying on her side with no memory of having fallen. It took her a few seconds to regain her bearings.

"What-" she croaked out. Her voice was sore, after screaming so much. She made herself stand up and look around.

She saw Sakura first. Her teammate was standing as well, next to Tazuna, and looking at something on the far left with her face white as a sheet. There were tear tracks on her cheeks and her hands trembled around the blade she was holding. She didn't say anything when she saw Naruto approach her, though. And just like that, coldness spread through Naruto the way heat had before. From her belly downward, upward, sideward. She turned her head and looked.

Haku was standing in front of Zabuza, his arms stretched out to shield him. The man himself seemed petrified, his bloodshot eyes stuck on the back of Haku's head.

Hatake's hand was wrist-deep into Haku's chest. With the last of his strength, the boy gripped the jounin's arm tightly against him. And then his eyes blanked and his legs stopped shaking, and he was dead.

Naruto didn't register much of what happened in the following minute. She vaguely saw the great sword fall onto Hatake, still stuck to Haku's corpse, only to hit the ground with a loud _clang_. Hatake had flicked out of its reach and back to where Naruto and Sakura were waiting,fighting shock and exhaustion. He deposited Haku's body at their feet without saying a word, before standing up to meet Zabuza again.

"Sasuke?" he asked them.

Naruto didn't have enough left in her to really feel the pain the sound of her teammate's name awoke inside her. "Haku," she heard herself whisper. She watched his face below her. He was smiling, even now, with the satisfied knowledge that he had protected his precious person with the best of his abilities. She didn't cry. She couldn't cry anymore.

"Useful till the end," Zabuza said in an amused voice. Naruto lifted her head slowly. "I really lucked out with this one."

Rage filled her again, brutal, bloodthirsty. She was ready to jump on him and tear his throat out with her teeth when Hatake's hand gripped her shoulder.

"Calm down," he ordered shortly.

But she couldn't calm down. Haku's eyes and Haku's words and Haku's death—the sadness of it all was like a living thing inside her, howling great sobs, ripping her heart to pieces. Hatake's hand tightened to the point of pain, and only then did she deign look him in the eyes.

"Uzumaki," he said. His voice held the promise of death. "The fox's chakra is leaking out of your seal. You need to _calm down_."

His words came to her as though muffled. The chuckle was back, in her ears and in her own throat. She buried her claws into the human's forearm and bared her fangs at him. Oh, how she wished to see him dead. How she wished to tear that cursed eye out of its socket and crush it with stones from the mountains.

These weren't her thoughts, though, and she recognized that much. Hatake's words hit her at last, and she felt like she had been doused in cold water. Shivers took over her, pushing away the last of the red anger.

"Shit," she breathed, falling to her knees. She lifted her trembling hands and finally noticed how long and pointed her nails had become. She bit her lips until she could taste blood, body clenching, physically trying to hold back the red anger—the _Kyuubi_ 's anger. With a last flash of pain, her hands came back to their original state. Her vision found color again. Sounds stopped echoing inside her head as loudly as they had.

Sakura put one of her small hands on her back, but Naruto jerked out of the way. She couldn't bear the thought of anyone touching her at that moment.

"Oh," Zabuza said. He sounded mildly interested, but there was a tension in his voice that hadn't been there before. "Didn't know the Leaf had one of those."

 _One of those?_ Naruto thought, but she didn't raise her head to see Zabuza's face, didn't movea muscle one way or the other. Sakura was still hovering behind her, her fear almost tangible. Hatake finally left her side to stand in front of her, face to face with Zabuza.

"I should have guessed even the famous Yellow Flash wouldn't be able to actually _kill_ that thing," he continued. He took hold of his sword once more, heaving it above his good shoulder.

"Are you here to talk?" Hatake replied darkly.

Zabuza laughed, cold and humorless. "Just wondering how much any of the greater villages would pay to get their hands on her," he said.

None of this mattered to Naruto. She knelt on the floor and looked at Haku's pale face and unseeing eyes. She should close them, she thought. That was what you did to ninja who died honorably. You closed their eyes so that they could rest in peace at last. She raised a hand and placed it on his forehead. It was still warm beneath her fingers, as if he could wake up any moment and start talking again. Start saying these things that made her wish they could be friends instead of enemies, that made her chest flare with pain and regret. Her fingertips trembled against his eyelids, but she managed to bring them down. There. Now he looked like he was sleeping. She ignored the blood on his chin and the hole in his torso where his heart had once pulsed.

Sakura watched her do all of this without a comment. She put a hand on her shoulder carefully —Naruto let it stay. She heard her teammate release a breath. "I'm going to take care of Sasuke," she said, stumbling on the last word. Naruto nodded numbly. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. Hatake would kill Zabuza, and Haku would have died for nothing. They would go back to Konoha and Sasuke would still be dead. There was a vast emptiness inside her now.

"Don't you care about Haku?" Naruto asked. She didn't mean for her voice to be quite so loud. It resonated over to where Zabuza was leaning over, picking up his sword.

The blade made a high screeching sound as he dragged it across the ground and over his shoulder. Then his eyes found hers, searching. "I don't know how you met Haku or what he's told you about me," he said. "But I'm not the kind of person who _cares_ very much."

"I don't believe that for a second," Naruto retorted. Her hand found the side of Haku's face once more. He was already a little colder. Farther away from the living. Her ears buzzed, suddenly, just as they had when she had first fought Zabuza.

"Uzumaki," Hatake said shortly. "Now is not the time."

"It's never the time with you," she replied. He flinched a little. Another day, she would have felt something at that sight. Guilt, maybe, and shameful satisfaction. But not now.

"Let the little monster talk, Kakashi," Zabuza drawled, and the corner of his cold eyes dimpled. He was smirking underneath the bandages that covered his face. "Those are her last words after all."

Naruto raised herself to her feet slowly. She took a deep breath. "You're playing tough," she declared. "But I know if we weren't there right now you'd be crying like a baby."

He didn't rise to the taunt. He was probably aiming for unconcerned, but Naruto could almost taste the misery and the regret on him now. He wasn't answering because she was right.

Her eyes flicked to Haku, for the hundredth time. "I knew someone like him couldn't get attached to a complete bastard. You're all bark and no bite."

"I was six years old the first time I killed someone," Zabuza said. This sword shifted in the light, blinding her for half a second. "If it's feelings you're looking for, you've got the wrong person."

Naruto shook her head. She took a step forward, paying no mind to the hand Hatake extended toward her. He must be very tired, because she had no trouble escaping his hold on her collar.

"Why do you jounin always think emotion is such a bad thing?" she asked vehemently. "Why is it always 'be cold-blooded or be gone' with you?"

"Emotions make you weak," he answered. "They make wide open gaps in your defense. They damage you from the inside."

"I wonder how you know that, then, since you're so fucking high above it all."

He frowned at her. Naruto was aware that she didn't look very frightening. She was small for her age, smaller than everyone back at the Academy except that weird Hinata girl, and she was all loud and stupid and useless most of the time. But Sasuke was dead and she was never going to be able to erase from her mind the sight of Haku resisting death for one more second, just enough to grab the enemy and leave an opening for the person he cared about. And she suddenly felt very, very intimidating, a lot more than she had been a minute ago.

"You know," he said then, "this is why they shouldn't let women become shinobi. Always so emotional. Always talking."

Naruto pointed a finger at Haku's body. She glared at Zabuza, hoping he could feel the weight of her eyes on his skin. " _Nobody_ could have spent years with him and not been changed by him even a little. I only met him for one afternoon, and I didn't know who he was, but I'm never going to forget him. You can't not care about him. Not with how much he cared about you."

 _There_ , she thought, seeing his eyes shine a little brighter. There were no tears falling yet, butthey wouldn't be long coming. She just had to dig a little deeper.

"You know you're going to lose anyway," she accused. "Look at yourself. Hatake-sensei could just chew you and spit you out and you wouldn't be able to do anything about it. So why the hell are you still fighting and not just running away, if you don't care?"

"I care about the money you and your teacher will earn me, little girl," Zabuza said. And Naruto laughed hollowly, shaking her head.

"You're so full of it," she replied, her words almost stumbling on each other. "Even when you

attacked us last time, you were gonna let me and S-Sasuke leave. You weren't gonna kill us. Hatake-sensei, maybe, but not us. Maybe you don't realize it, but you're always talking about how young we are, and how it's a shame we have to die, and even now you're calling me 'little girl'." His uninjured shoulder clenched a little at that. Naruto pushed. "I think you loved Haku a lot, and I think you're only still here because you want to take revenge on Hatake-sensei. And even if you did kill him, I think you wouldn't kill me or Sakura-chan, no matter what you say."

He didn't answer. There was no difference in his expression or his posture. His eyes still shone, but his face was dry. He hadn't made a move to attack them yet, though. To Naruto, this was as good a confession as any.

"It's okay, you know," she said a little more softly, with the same voice Haku had used to try and make her slit his throat. "You must be very sad."

"Shut up," he said.

"Haku gave his life so you could live," she continued. "You know, when I met him, all he talked about was you. I didn't know it was you at the time, but it wasn't very hard to guess after. He was gathering herbs to heal you and he told me that he cared about you. He told me that you were the reason he was strong."

"That's enough," Hatake said briskly, but she heard him as if he were shouting from very far away.

"Are you really going to kill yourself now? You're just as stupid as he was. He wanted me to kill him, too, and if I'd done it then he wouldn't have saved your sorry ass just now. It's just like I told him," she spat out, hot tears running down her face again, "you never know what the future's going to be. He thought you would _reject_ him, because he'd lost to me. He said that he would kill himself when you did. What a load of bullshit."

"Shut up!" Zabuza yelled, and the great sword Kubikiribuchou swinged behind him in one long second as he took off toward her with all his speed.

Naruto heard her name being called from Hatake's mouth. She heard Sakura scream from where she was kneeling next to Sasuke's cooling corpse. She saw Hatake try to move, and his legs buck under his weight until he was forced to stop. Even then, the glint of his kunai reached her.

She didn't move. She could feel her pulse inside her mouth, a taste like blood in the back of her throat. Fear was blinding her, fuzzing the edge of her sight. But she never stopped looking into Zabuza's crazed eyes. She watched the first tear roll down his bruised cheek and stain the cloth covering his mouth. Her ears buzzed until all sound was drowned out; she was all alone now, standing as tall as she could, looking straight at her would-be murderer without flinching. It took all of her strength not to crumble, and all of her will not to jump backwards and run away. She had never been more scared in her life.

Sasuke came to her mind, standing with his back to her and his arms extended, protecting her with his body, in the same position Haku himself had died to protect Zabuza barely a few

minutes later. So Naruto extended her own arms, stepped in front of Hatake, and raised her chin high.

The blade stopped a few centimeters from her neck. Zabuza was crouched before her, his feet glowing with the remnants of his chakra. He had stuck his own feet to the ground to prevent himself from striking her.

Naruto released her breath in what sounded suspiciously like a sob. Sweat was sticking her clothes to her back. She felt Hatake's worry and terror leave him in one long sigh, and it felt like soft wind on her skin. Maybe the Kyuubi was still awake inside her, sharpening her senses.

"See?" she said.

Zabuza didn't answer. Tears were dripping freely from his face now, dampening his bandages, outlining his upturned mouth. His grip slackened on the handle of the Neck-Cutter, until it fell to the ground with a loud metallic sound. He didn't seem to even see her anymore. His eyes were lost and empty, as lost and empty as she felt every time the thought struck her that she would never ever talk to Sasuke again. There would never be another late night conversation between them. She would never get to ask him about his mom and the rest of his family. She would never again hear the nicknames he called her, or the half-laugh he gave when he thought she had said something funny.

All the small things that made her wish she was the one lying dead instead of him.

"It's okay," she said again. Her arms were still stretched outward; she let them fall at her side, palms facing him. "It's okay. I get it."

"No, you dont," Zabuza breathed. His good hand came up to hide his face. "You can't."

She nodded, even though he couldn't see her. Clouds had come now, covering up the sky and the sun. It would snow again soon. Hatake hadn't moved from his spot. His eyes were wide, his skin pale. His eyes found Naruto's, and what he saw in them made him turn his head violently to the side. His fingers clutched the kunai a little tighter.

Zabuza's shoulders shook in silent sobs that made his whole body tremble. He stood up again only to search for Haku and drag his feet to where the boy's body lay still as a statue. He dropped to his knees beside him and touched his face, ghost-like, and his hesitation spoke of the deep-ingrained fear of those who are more used to breaking things than fixing them. Naruto swallowed around the lump that had formed in her throat.

"He was only a child when I took him in," Zabuza said in a hoarse voice.

"I know," Naruto murmured.

Zabuza bowed his head. "He was too kind," he whispered. His hand rested on Haku's cheek as if trying to diffuse warmth into its skin. "It was killing him, fighting you. I could tell. He probably hated himself for killing that boy."

Naruto couldn't answer to that. Nothing would make her forgive Haku for what he had done to

Sasuke, but she felt even worse at the thought of hating him. He had died respecting the principles he had passed onto Naruto. He had used his strength to protect the one he loved.

After a while, Naruto felt the first snowflakes land on her nose and her shoulders. Zabuza hadn't moved from his spot, and nor had Hatake, although he had risen to his feet. She thought they might stay like this a long time still, until their clothes had become a second skin under the weight of the snow, until they were so cold they stopped shivering altogether. But suddenly Sakura was crying out, in surprise and fear, and Naruto turned to her.

"He's alive!" she yelled, and for a second Naruto didn't understand what she was talking about. Then she registered the movement coming from Sasuke's body, his open eyes, the way he was wincing and slowly trying to haul himself upright.

"Figures," she heard Zabuza say, but she wasn't listening anymore.

She had thought she had no strength left in her, but she was running through the sores in her legs and arms, gulping in the frosty air, until finally she was next to them, her eyes boring into Sasuke's.

"What," he croaked, embarrassed and in pain and still trying to look like it was nothing.

The needles had all been removed from his body. _Sakura_ , she thought distantly, _she said she_ _was going to take care of him._ She hardly cared about all of this now, though. She was toobusy drinking in the sight of his familiar annoyed frown, of the fatigue and weakness in his limbs, of the way he was putting up a tough act even though a minute ago they had all thought he was _dead_.

 _He's alive_ , she thought gleefully. _He's alive_. _Haku didn't kill him_. Haku had probably neverintended to kill him. He had pulled the same act as with Zabuza the first time, and they had fallen for it like idiots. Haku would have done the same to all of them, because he had been a kind person, because he had been Naruto's friend and someone precious to her, even after only one afternoon. And Haku fought for those he held dear and those who held him dear.

Naruto fell to her knees beside Sasuke and wrapped him in a tight hug, regardless of his protests. She knew she was probably hurting him, but she couldn't bring herself to care at this moment. The hole inside her was filling up with light with every heartbeat she felt against her own. He felt real, and warm, and he was breathing exasperated sighs against her nape. His arms never came to return her embrace, but he wasn't pulling her away, and Sakura was crying again and shoving herself against the two of them, too weak to hold them but too happy not to try, and Naruto laughed and cried as loudly as she could.


End file.
